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Rev.  John  Bancroft  Devins,   D.D.,  LL.D. 


John  Bancroft  Devins 

A  True  Greatheart 


Reminiscences  by 

REV.  E.  C.  RAY,  D.D. 
With  Supplementary  Chapters 


ABanrtattott  Prwa  ^v 


NEW  YORK:     124  East  28th  Street 

LONDON:  47  Paternoster  Row,  E.  C. 

1912 


Copyright,   1912,  by 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMITTEE  OF 
YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

The  reminiscences  in  this  book  are  not  a 
biography,  but  a  record  of  the  sahent  events 
and  characteristics  of  Dr.  Devins's  hfe  and 
personaHty  as  recalled  by  a  close  friend  of 
many  years,  the  Reverend  E.  C.  Ray,  D.D., 
of  Santa  Barbara,  California;  a  series  of 
"  moving  pictures  "  rather  than  a  meticulous 
and  balanced  history.  The  writer  desires  to 
acknowledge  gratefully  his  obligation  to 
Mrs.  Devins  for  the  greatest  possible  assist- 
ance; and  to  express  his  hope  that  the  remi- 
niscences, though  unworthy  of  their  great 
subject,  may  yet  be  useful  in  recalling  to  his 
friends  some  vivid  memories,  and  in  sug- 
gesting to  others  how  a  life  encompassed  with 
difficulties  may  be  made  glorious  and  happy 
and  filled  with  the  spirit  and  the  works  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Details  of  his  earlier  years, 
so  amazing,  so  pathetic,  so  sad  to  those  to 
whom  Dr.  Devins  was  most  dear  —  just  as 
the  long  past  sufferings  of  our  Lord,  essen- 
tial to  His  power  and  glory,  hurt  our  hearts 
now —  are  given,  in  connection  with  what  he 
afterwards  accomplished  only  as  an  inspira- 
tion to  those  who  are  handicapped  at  the 
start.     As  Dr.  Devins  shrank  from  exploit- 


4  PREFATORY  NOTE 

Ing  his  own  story,  these  things  would  never 
have  been  written  were  it  not  that  he  ex- 
pressed to  his  wife,  and  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer,  his  willingness  that  after  his  death 
these  reminiscences  be  written  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  begin  life  under  similar  disad- 
vantages. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  Start  and  the  Finish     .     .       7 

II     Getting  Religion 14 

III  Getting  Education       ....     20 

IV  Looking  Backward 25 

V  The  First  Day  in  New  York  .      .     34 

VI  Life  in  Elizabeth,  N.  J.     .      .      .40 

VII     The  University 46 

VIII     The  "Tribune" 52 

IX  Marriage  and  Seminary     .     .      .57 

X     Hope  Chapel 62 

XI  The  Hungarian  Widow     ...     70 

XII     Hungary 76 

XIII  Federation 81 

XIV  Personal  Work 87 

XV  More  Personal  Work       ...     95 

XVI  The  Finish  and  the  New  Start     103 

XVII     Tributes no 

XVIII     Memorial  Services 125 

XIX  Resolutions  and  Letters        .      .148 
His  Favorite  Poem       .      .     .      .165 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    START   AND   THE    FINISH 

A  Sturdy  lad  walked  into  the  hamlet  of 
Vernon  Center,  Oneida  County,  New  York, 
on  a  March  morning  In  1873.  He  had 
walked  far,  carrying  all  his  worldly  posses- 
sions, easily.  In  a  very  small  bundle.  He 
had  left  home  because  home  failed  to  give 
him  two  things  he  resolved  to  have  —  re- 
ligion and  education.  Religion  he  had,  deep 
down  In  the  heart  of  him;  but  he  had  not  the 
forms  of  It  and  did  not  know  that  he  had  it 
at  all,  and  he  would  have  It  or  die.  He 
walked  on  the  quest  of  the  Holy  Grail.  Of 
education  he  had  but  little;  but  the  root  of  it 
was  In  him,  that  unappeasable  hunger,  com- 
bined with  unalterable  resolution  and  will- 
ingness to  work  like  a  slave,  lacking  in  so 
many  who  have  all  opportunities.  This  is 
the  pledge  of  power  for  those  who  are  born 
with  It  or  have  it  awakened  in  them.  He 
was  out  walking  for  wisdom. 

What  else  had  he  in  capital  to  make  a 
career  for  himself?  A  name?  Half  of 
one.  He  was  John.  John  what?  His 
adoptive  parents,  who  had  taken  him  an  in- 

7 


8         JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

fant  from  the  Home  for  the  Friendless  in 
New  York  City,  had  given  him  their  last 
name,  and  with  that  name  he  walked  into 
Vernon  Center.  Let  us  call  it  Pachman  — 
John  Pachman.  No,  he  had  no  capital  but 
himself.  Not  trying  now  to  look  inside  of 
the  boy,  into  his  brain  and  heart,  but  letting 
them  speak  for  themselves,  in  these  reminis- 
cences, let  us  inventory  his  external  assets  at 
that  time.  Clothes  —  nothing  good  to  be 
said;  they  were  few,  cheap,  misfits,  worn. 
Body  —  short,  square  built,  stocky,  muscles 
of  size  and  of  steel,  shoulders  of  Atlas,  a 
shock  of  reddish  hair  cut  under  a  bowl,  a  per- 
vasive crop  of  large  freckles,  head  rather 
small  and  not  at  all  promising,  shy  manner, 
extraordinary  capability  for  blushing  and 
none  for  taking  care  of  his  hands  and  feet 
in  social  groups  containing  well-dressed  or  fe- 
male persons,  a  very  rapid,  half-articulated 
speech  difficult  to  understand. 

But  he  had  two  things  that  distinguished 
him  from  most  other  people  and  suggested 
the  promise  of  all  that  he  was  to  be.  His 
form  was  always  erect  and  his  carriage  free, 
unlike  the  attitudes  and  gaits  usually  acquired 
in  farm  occupations.  He  never  slouched  in 
his  life.  He  stood  up,  sat  down,  walked, 
ran,  fell,  got  up  again,  all  with  the  graceful 
power  of  an  athlete.     There  was  nobody  else 


THE  START  AND  THE  FINISH       9 

in  the  community  like  him.  Physical  perfec- 
tion, perfect  health,  mental  balance  and  moral 
strength  seemed  to  shout  themselves  through 
him  to  the  world.  Everybody  felt,  uncon- 
sciously, the  message  his  body  spoke.  It  won 
instant  respect,  awing  the  lawless,  winning  the 
well-meaning,  inspiring  confidence  in  every- 
one. 

But  his  wonderful  eyes !  Of  a  soft  dark 
brown  and  very  large,  their  first  noticeable 
characteristic  was  their  extraordinary  beauty, 
unsurpassed,  in  the  judgment  of  his  friends, 
by  any  other  eyes.  Next,  everybody  felt  that 
they  were  clean,  transparent  windows  of  his 
soul,  capable  of  expressing  any  emotion  pos- 
sible to  a  human  spirit.  They  could  flash 
with  anger  like  lightning  strokes,  showing  a 
furnace  of  wrath  within.  They  could  speak 
a  scorn  as  biting  as  aqua  fortis.  But  they 
commonly  glowed  with  kindness,  unspeakable 
affection  and  good-will,  honesty  unquestion- 
able and  absolutely  firm,  truthfulness  as  clear 
as  heaven's  blue,  and  courage  that  no  one 
looking  into  them  would  think  of  trying  to 
weaken.  What  a  great,  strong,  soaring,  self- 
controlled,  trusty,  dependable,  loving  soul 
looked  out  of  those  windows !  Everybody 
felt  that  at  once  all  through  his  life. 

What  had  the  little  hamlet,  nine  miles  from 
its  railroad  station  at  Oneida,  to  offer  this 


10      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

lad?  Two  general  stores,  a  smithy,  a  tiny 
post-office  in  the  tailor's  shop,  Methodist  and 
Presbyterian  churches  on  adjacent  corners 
facing  the  small  central  square,  a  tavern  of 
bad  repute,  a  few  modest  dwellings  with  one 
comparatively  palatial  one  —  the  summer 
home  of  a  rich  distiller  from  Buffalo  —  and 
farmhouses  on  all  the  out-radiating  roads. 
What  did  John  make  of  his  opportunities? 

He  worked  his  way  through  New  York 
University  and  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
later  receiving  earned  degrees  of  A.B.  and 
A.M.  from  the  former  institution,  and  from 
other  institutions  the  honorary  degrees  of  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity  and  Doctor  of  Laws.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  city  staff.  New  York  Tri- 
bune, 1880-8;  corresponding  secretary,  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Christian  Philosophy,  and 
editor  of  its  magazine,  Christian  Thought, 
1890-6;  chairman  Sub-committee  on  Sanita- 
tion, East  Side  Relief  Work,  1893-4;  founder 
and  first  president.  Federation  of  East  Side 
Workers,  1894;  founder  and  president, 
New  York  Employment  Society,  1894;  chair- 
man. Cooper  Union  Labor  Bureau,  1895; 
manager,  New  York  Association  for  Improv- 
ing the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  1895;  mem- 
ber Public  Lecture  Corps,  New  York  Board 
of  Education,  1896;  member  National  Fed- 
eration of  Churches  and  Christian  Workers, 


THE  START  AND  THE  FINISH     1 1 

1901-8;  managing  editor,  New  York  Ob- 
server, 1 898-1902;  editor  and  president,  New 
York  Observer  Company,  1902;  member 
National  Civic  Federation,  1902;  official 
representative.  Evangelistic  Committee  of 
General  Assembly,  Presbyterian  Church, 
U.  S.  A.,  on  trip  around  the  world,  1903-4; 
speaker  of  International  Sunday  School  Com- 
mittee at  Jerusalem  Convention,  1904;  mem- 
ber General  Assembly's  Committee  on  Sea- 
men and  Soldiers,  1904-8  ;  first  fraternal  dele- 
gate of  New  York  Presbytery  to  Central 
Federated  Labor  Union,  1904-8;  managing 
editor,  The  Bible  Record,  1904-6;  trustee 
(by  appointment  of  the  Governor),  New 
York  State  Hospital  for  Incipient  Pulmonary 
Tuberculosis,  Ray  Brook,  N.  Y,,  1905-1910; 
and  secretary  of  the  Board,  1906-8;  member 
Executive  Committee,  Inter-church  Confer- 
ence on  Federation,  and  chairman  of  its  Press 
Com.mittee,  1903;  member  Child  Labor 
Committee,  1906;  member  the  College 
Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S.  A., 
1906-8;  life  member  American  Bible  Society, 
1907;  member  National  Vacation  Bible 
School  Committee,  1907;  trustee  and  vice- 
president.  Industrial  Christian  Alliance  for 
the  U.  S.  A.,  1907;  secretary,  Presbyterian 
Union  of  New  York,  1907;  trustee.  Evan- 
gelical Alliance,   U.   S.  A.,    1907;  manager, 


12       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund,  1907;  chairman, 
Committee  on  Literature  and  Education,  Fed- 
eral Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  Amer- 
ica, 1908;  corporate  member,  China  Indus- 
trial Union,  1908;  counselor.  Female  Guard- 
ian Society  and  Home  for  the  Friendless, 
1908;  advisory  member.  Working  Girls'  Va- 
cation Society,  1908;  trustee,  American  Sea- 
men's Friend  Society,  1908  ;  member  National 
Geographical  Society,  Washington,  1908; 
member  Victoria  Institute,  London,  1908;  or- 
ganizer Orient  Travel  League  for  Bible  Stu- 
dents and  Travelers,  1909;  member  Bible 
Study  Union,  1909.  Initial  dates  for  the  fol- 
lowing are  laclcing:  Member  Central  Bureau 
of  Colored  Fresh  Air  Agencies;  trustee, 
Christ's  Mission;  chairman.  Prison  Gate  Mis- 
sion ;  lecturer  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Edu- 
cation on  Sociology,  Literature  and  Travel; 
manager,  New  York  Sunday  School  Associa- 
tion, and  chairman  of  its  Committee  on  Public 
Buildings;  honorary  secretary  for  New  York- 
Egypt  Exploration  Fund;  author  of  "  Blind 
Jennie,"  "  The  Church  and  the  City  Prob- 
lem "  (1895),  "An  Observer  in  the  Philip- 
pines "  ( 1 905 ) ,  "  On  the  Way  to  Hwai  Yuen, 
or  a  Mule  Ride  in  China"  (1906),  "The 
Classic  Mediterranean"  (1910),  and  the 
hymn,  "  Jesus,  Saviour,  We  Would  See 
Thee,"  collaborator  in  "  The  Life  of  Dwight 


THE  START  AND  THE  FINISH     13 

L.  Moody,"  "  Christ  and  the  Church  "  and 
"  Proceedings  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches."  He  was  never  a  member  of  any 
board,  committee,  association  or  group  of 
workers  into  which  he  did  not  throw  his  whole 
soul  and  ability  to  work. 

One  who  knew  him  from  his  Vernon  Cen- 
ter appearance  until  his  disappearance  when 
a  cloud  received  him  out  of  our  sight  will  try 
to  tell  in  these  pages  some  of  the  character- 
istic and  romantic  incidents  of  his  develop- 
ment. There  will  be  no  effort  to  magnify 
his  character  or  achievements,  or  to  glorify 
his  memory,  but  only  to  tell  the  story  simply 
and  truthfully  so  that  others  may  get  help 
from  it.  We  shall  tell  about  "  John  "  as  we 
knew  him. 


CHAPTER  II 

GETTING  RELIGION 

So  John  Pachman  walked  into  Vernon 
Center  that  March  day  of  1873,  in  his  sev- 
enteenth year,  his  worldly  poverty  in  a  small 
bundle  in  his  hand,  talent,  if  not  genius, 
seething  not  understood  in  his  brain,  his  big 
heart  confident  and  unafraid  walking  out  into 
life  with  a  firm,  ambitious  tread,  his  head 
high,  his  hopes  higher,  seeking  two  things  — 
religion  and  education.  He  felt  that  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom, 
as  all  wise  men  have  felt  even  before  Solo- 
mon. So  he  sought  religion  first,  leaving 
education  for  later  consideration;  thus,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  taking  the  first 
necessary  step  toward  sound  education.  He 
hired  himself  out  to  Mr,  Young,  an  elder  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  farm  hand,  with 
a  small  monthly  stipend  "  and  found."  This 
was  happy  for  both  parties.  Mr.  Young 
thus  entertained  an  angel  unawares.  John 
found  a  warm  home,  a  fine  Christian  friend 
in  the  young  farmer,  a  sister's  sympathetic 
help  in  the  farmer's  lovely  wife,  and  two  dear 
little   children,   girls,   upon   whom   he   could 

14 


GETTING  RELIGION  15 

practice  some  of  the  love  and  kindness  with 
which  his  heart  overflowed.  He  went  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  with  these  friends  his 
first  Sunday  in  his  new  home. 

That  same  week  another  young  man,  seven 
years  older  than  John,  as  tall  as  John  was 
then  short,  as  anemic  and  thin  as  John  was 
ruddy  and  stocky,  having  a  few  more  clothes 
than  John  and  a  good  many  more  books,  and 
a  license  from  the  Presbytery  to  exercise  his 
gifts,  and  an  invitation  from  the  church  at  the 
Center,  had  come  in  on  the  stage  from  Oneida, 
lodged  lonely  in  the  little  manse,  and  began 
with  fear  and  trembling  to  try  to  make  ser- 
mons  and   friends.     He   made   one   lifelong 
friend  the  first  Sunday  —  John.     John  felt 
in  the  first  two  sermons  all  that  the  immature 
young  seminarian  longed  to  express  in  them 
and  could  not.     They  talked  half  that  Sun- 
day night.      "  Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I 
will  in  no  wise  cast  out";  no  other  text  was 
needed.     John  needed  no  one  to  lead  him  to 
the  Saviour  he  was  seeking  with  all  his  heart, 
only   someone   to   call   his   attention   to   that 
Saviour's  instant   and   eternal   acceptance   of 
him.     The  young  minister  declined  to  discuss 
Presbyterianism   or   any   other  ism,   because 
our  Church  welcomes  all  who  trust  and  love 
and  desire  to  follow  the  Saviour,  and  all  ques- 
tions  beyond  that  could  be  postponed;  the 


i6       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Great  Teacher  would  not  fail  to  teach  all 
things  in  due  time,  by  the  Spirit  of  truth,  to 
an  earnest  disciple  and  follower.  John  acted 
upon  this  truth  instantly;  it  settled  the  matter 
for  him  forever;  it  was  never  again  in  his 
life,  I  believe,  open  to  doubt.  That  was  an 
early  prophecy  of  greatness,  that  instant  de- 
cision of  a  great  question  never  to  be  re- 
opened. Is  there  not  some  greatness  in  a 
comparatively  untaught  soul  that  can  In  an 
hour  appreciate  the  incomparable  truth  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  rely  absolutely,  with  never 
a  hesitation,  fear  or  regret,  upon  His  word? 
There  was  earnest  prayer,  and  hand  grips, 
and  "good-night"  and  "God  bless  you!" 
So  John  accomplished  his  first  adventure,  his 
walking  in  search  of  the  Holy  Grail;  he  got 
religion. 

And  what  religion  he  got !  The  following 
Wednesday  night  the  usual  mid-week  meet- 
ing was  held  In  the  little  basement  room  that 
might  possibly  hold  a  crowded  twenty  or 
thirty  —  but  was  never  called  upon  to  do  that 
at  prayer  meeting;  a  dozen  was  a  large  at- 
tendance. John  was  there.  At  the  first  op- 
portunity he  was  down  upon  his  knees,  trying 
to  pray.  He  mumbled  indistinguishable 
words  a  minute  or  two  and  then  ceased. 
The  embarrassed  young  preacher  knew  not 
what  to  say  to  him  at  the  close  of  the  meet- 


GETTING  RELIGION  17 

ing;  could  only  grasp  his  hand  and  try  to 
look  love  and  courage  into  his  eyes.  An 
answering  grip  of  the  hand  and  the  wonder- 
ful eyes  spoke  gratitude,  love  and  courage 
better  than  words  could  have  done  it.  The 
next  Wednesday  night  John  was  there,  and 
at  the  first  opportunity  on  his  knees  again 
trying  to  pray.  He  was  there  every  Wed- 
nesday night,  the  first  to  pray.  Presently  his 
words  could  be  distinguished;  simple  prayers 
like  a  child's,  but  also  like  a  man's,  full  of  in- 
tensest  devotion,  resolution,  fire  of  purpose, 
with  humility,  trust,  practicality.  He  never 
failed  to  be  present  and  to  pray,  and  he  never 
failed  of  a  petition  for  foreign  missions. 
Dr.  A.  W.  Halsey,  secretary  of  our  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  began  his  article  about 
John  in  The  Assembly  Herald  with  these 
words:  "The  mission  cause  never  had  a 
better  friend  than  the  editor  of  The  New 
York  Observer,  whose  sudden  death  on  Au- 
gust 26,  191 1,  brought  sorrow  to  many  hearts 
in  many  lands."  It  began  in  that  little  prayer 
meeting  at  the  Center.  It  was  favorable  soil 
for  such  devotion.  The  little  church  had 
sent  fully  a  dozen  of  its  young  men  to  Ham- 
ilton College,  only  four  miles  away,  over  the 
hills,  and  through  Auburn  Seminary  into  the 
ministry,  two  of  them  later  going  to  Chile 
as  missionaries  under  our  foreign  board. 


1 8       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

I  have  never  known  anyone  between  whose 
intellectual  convictions  and  daily  conduct  there 
was  closer  connection  than  was  the  case  with 
John,  always.  He  attended  unfailingly 
every  church  service  or  other  function,  in 
every  one  doing  what  he  could  to  help.  He 
did  not  attend  them  for  social  pleasure,  for 
he  seldom  attended  merely  social  gatherings. 
He  was  too  serious,  felt  his  handicaps  too 
keenly,  was  too  intent  on  getting  religion 
and  education,  to  take  time  for  mere  pleas- 
ure ;  and  he  was  too  shy  in  social  groups  to 
seek  them  for  pleasure.  But  he  felt  that  as 
a  follower  of  Christ,  as  a  member  of  the 
church  into  which  he  was  received  and  bap- 
tized at  the  first  communion,  it  was  his  bus- 
iness to  take  part  in  every  phase  of  the 
church's  life,  and  he  did  it.  That  spirit 
characterized  all  his  later  relations  in  life. 
He  was  absolutely  faithful  and  consecrated. 
He  accepted  no  position  on  board,  committee, 
directorate,  and  no  title  or  degree,  as  a  mer- 
ited honor,  but  always  as  an  added  responsi- 
bility, an  opportunity  for  earnest  service,  an- 
other call  upon  the  great  love  and  devotion 
of  his  heart,  brain  and  hands.  His  religion 
was  not  merely  the  most  important  thing  in 
his  character  and  life;  it  permeated,  colored, 
shaped,  glorified  every  ounce,  atom  and  ion 
of   him.     It  was   no  fire   Insurance   against 


GETTING  RELIGION  19 

eternal  damnation,  such  as  when  one  tries  to 
get  the  largest  possible  amount  of  assurance 
against  loss  and  damage  by  fire  for  the  small- 
est possible  premium  payments.  It  was 
union  of  mind,  heart  and  life  with  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  blood  brotherhood  with  Him; 
thei  past  forgiven  and  the  future  safe,  the 
present  full  of  glorious  possibilities  of  fellow- 
ship, service,  growth,  gladness,  life  and  life 
more  abundantly.  Constant  companionship 
with  such  a  soul  was  more  educational  and 
more  heartening  to  the  young  parson  than  all 
his  theological  years  had  been.  Has  anyone 
ever  kept  close  to  John  for  any  length  of 
time  without  a  similar  experience?  "There 
was  a  man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was 
John.  The  same  came  for  a  witness  to  bear 
witness  of  the  Light,  that  all  men  through 
him  might  believe.  .  .  .  He  was  a 
burning  and  a  shining  light,  and  ye  were  will- 
ing for  a  time  to  rejoice  in  his  light." 


CHAPTER  III 

GETTING   EDUCATION 

"  Getting  Education  Into  Him  "  would 
have  to  be  the  title  of  this  chapter  in  the  life 
of  the  ordinary  boy.  When  Sidis  Boris 
methods  become  general  perhaps  boys  will 
try  to  get  education  instead  of  requiring  that 
it  be  coaxed,  wheedled,  argued,  scolded  and 
pounded  into  them;  but  at  present  the  boy 
who  sets  out  for  himself  to  get  education  is 
extraordinary.  He  gets  it.  Hence,  how- 
ever it  may  have  seemed  to  John,  it  was 
really  of  slight  importance  to  him  that  the 
young  minister  was  present  to  lend  a  hand  in 
the  matter:  John  would  have  got  education 
all  the  same  some  other  way;  but  it  was  of 
immense  importance  to  the  young  minister 
that  the  great  privilege  fell  to  him.  School 
was  out  of  the  question;  neither  of  them  had 
money  for  it.  Nor  was  regular  recitation 
possible;  John's  time  was  his  employer's  and 
the  minister's  was  everybody's.  But  the 
small  well  selected  library  was  there,  and 
books  were  chosen  for  John  to  read  as  he 
could,  then  to  be  talked  over  between  them  as 
opportunity  offered.     John   read   slowly   at 

20 


John    at    the    Age    of    19. 


GETTING  EDUCATION  21 

first,  handicapped  by  inexperience  as  well  as 
by  lack  of  knowledge.  But  he  read  dog- 
gedly. He  never  slept  many  hours  a  night, 
but  he  slept  soundly.  He  did  thoroughly 
everything  that  he  undertook.  He  read 
every  spare  minute;  mornings,  noons,  nights; 
driving  to  the  nine-mile  distant  rail- 
road station;  many  hours  on  Sundays,  and  in 
those  multitudinous  odd  times  when  most 
boys  do  anything  else  but  read.  In  discuss- 
ing what  he  read  he  soon  shook  off  his  first 
embarrassment  of  poverty  of  information  and 
began  to  ask  questions  going  down  to  the 
roots  of  things  and  up  to  their  tendencies. 

Autumn  brought  to  the  Center  a  young 
man  from  a  nearby  town,  gifted  with  am- 
bition and  a  little  schooling,  who  had  ac- 
quired, by  pushing  his  hair  up  and  back,  a 
noble  brow,  and  a  manner  of  oppressive  dig- 
nity. He  opened  in  the  enlarged  basement 
of  our  church  a  private  school  where,  at  small 
charges,  our  youth  could  get  education  sup- 
posedly better  and  loftier  than  the  district 
school  afforded.  John  arranged  to  do  chores 
for  his  employer  during  the  winter  for  his 
board  and  put  his  savings  into  a  few  books 
and  tuition  in  the  private  school.  Probably 
fifteen  or  twenty  subjects  were  taught  in  the 
school  —  and  John  took  them.  The  quality 
of  the  teaching  may  be  judged   from  this: 


22      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

The  teacher  engaged  the  young  minister  to 
give  him  lessons  in  beginning  Latin  five  days 
a  week  before  breakfast;  and  it  was  consider- 
ably later  that  the  minister  learned  that  these 
lessons  were  given  an  hour  later  to  pupils  in 
the  school,  and  when  the  minister  was  absent 
at  Presbytery  or  the  like,  the  Latin  class  was 
excused  that  day,  of  course  with  no  reference 
to  the  minister's  absence.  John  took  every- 
thing except  the  Latin,  which  began  late  in 
the  term.  He  bought  with  his  own  money 
candles  for  study  in  the  night.  He  attacked 
each  subject  as  if  it  were  the  one  lion  in  his 
path  of  education.  What  horrors  of  dis- 
couragement he  met  in  that  first  climbing  of 
the  rugged  path  to  knowledge !  But  he  was 
never  discouraged  for  a  moment;  difficulty 
meant  to  him  only  harder  fighting.  "  Let 
courage  rise  with  danger,  and  strength  to 
strength  oppose  ";  he  liked  to  sing  that;  he 
lived  it  daily.  He  came  out  of  that  winter 
a  man.  All  he  learned  from  books  and 
teacher  was  little  compared  with  the  educa- 
tion he  got  from  the  struggle  itself;  the  really 
vital  part  of  education  for  life,  and  the  part 
that  the  ordinary  boy  never  gets  at  all. 

Three  years  after  John  came  to  the  Center 
the  young  minister  removed  from  Vernon 
Center  to  enter  a  pastorate  in  New  Jersey. 
He  had  always  known  from  John's  prayers 


GETTING  EDUCATION         23 

that  he  wanted  to  be  a  foreign  missionary, 
but  had  never  spoken  of  it  to  John.  He 
never  tried  to  force  John's  confidence  on  any 
subject,  or  to  give  him  unasked  advice;  and 
their  growing  friendship  was  thus  kept  on  a 
basis  of  comradeship;  and  why  use  "come 
on  "  methods  with  one  whom  the  Spirit  of 
God  was  clearly  leading  better  than  a  man 
could  do  it?  But  now  John  opened  his  heart 
on  the  subject.  For  once,  he  was  discour- 
aged. He  had  hoped,  but  he  saw  no  way 
to  get  all  the  vast  education  his  felt  igno- 
rance told  him  he  needed,  and  he  spoke  of 
missionarying  only  as  of  a  dream  broken,  an 
illusion  dispelled.  The  minister,  of  course, 
could  open  vistas  of  hope  to  him.  It  was 
arranged  that  a  school  should  be  found  where 
John  could  work  his  way,  wholly  or  in  part, 
until  the  minister  got  settled  down  some- 
where and  the  minister's  wife  could  invite 
John  to  become  a  member  of  their  family. 
In  the  fall  of  1876  accordingly  he  entered 
Whitestown  Academy,  a  very  fine  school  at 
Utica.  Here  he  worked  at  gardening,  care 
of  horse  and  cow,  sweeping  out,  sawing  and 
splitting  wood  and  building  fires,  and  the  like, 
at  twelve  and  one-half  cents  an  hour  during 
the  school  year.  He  had  to  borrow  some 
money  on  his  personal  notes,  and  he  found  no 
trouble  in  doing  so;  who  that  ever  knew  him 


24       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

well  could  ever  entertain  a  doubt  as  to  either 
his  honesty  or  his  ability  to  repay?  But  such 
easy  money  never  led  him  to  relax  an  atom 
of  his  rigid  economy.  Money  In  his  pocket 
stayed  there,  In  spite  of  all  the  temptations 
that  usually  evaporate  it  out  of  boys'  pockets, 
until  the  sternest  necessity  brought  it  out. 

John  stood  fairly  in  his  classes  that  year. 
But  he  had  no  decent  preparation  for  the 
work;  time  and  strength  were  poured  out  for 
twelve  and  one-half  cents  an  hour  to  keep 
him  along,  and  he  took  nearly  twice  as  many 
studies  as  others  attempted.  When  the  sum- 
mer vacation  came,  John  had  covered,  in  a 
term  or  so  of  rural  district  school  years  be- 
fore, In  the  winter  private  school  at  the  Cen- 
ter and  the  one  year  at  Whitestown  Acad- 
emy, and  in  his  solitary  reading  helped  a  lit- 
tle by  the  young  minister,  the  education  that 
is  usually  acquired,  with  far  less  thoroughness 
and  usefulness,  In  the  eight  grades  of  the 
common  school.  And  he  had  secured  the 
real  education  which  knits  character,  gives 
It  will  and  strength,  endurance  and  power. 
He  was  now  ready  to  accept  the  young  min- 
ister's Invitation  to  his  home  In  New  Jersey. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LOOKING  BACKWARD 

While  John  is  taking  his  brief  but  mo- 
mentous journey  from  the  country  to  the 
metropolis,  we  shall  find  extraordinary  inter- 
est in  looking  backward  over  his  life  to  note 
some  things  which  he  has  recorded.  Quo- 
tation marks,  unless  otherwise  indicated,  en- 
close his  own  words. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  City,  Septem- 
ber 26,  1856.  "About  my  parentage  and 
early  life  the  little  I  have  been  able  to  learn 
is  contained  in  the  records  of  the  Home  for 
the  Friendless.  My  father,  John  Devins, 
was  Irish  Catholic,  as  was  my  mother,  Ann 
Mahan,  before  her  marriage.  My  father 
disappeared  six  months  after  their  marriage 
and  had  not  been  heard  from  since  by  his  wife 
in  1859.  ,  My  mother  was  then  in  service 
at  10  Washington  Place,  which  was  then 
the  home  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt.  About 
a  year  after  my  birth,  a  French  woman, 
Mrs.  Marie,  a  widow  and  a  Catholic, 
adopted  me.  Two  years  later,  in  April 
1859,  "^y  mother  and  Mrs.  Marie  legally 
surrendered  me  to  the  Home  for  the  Friend- 
less, parting  with  me,  the  record  of  the  Home 

25 


26      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

says,  with  great  affection  and  many  tears. 
After  diligent  use  of  every  means  of  search 
I  have  been  unable  to  learn  anything  more 
regarding  my  parents,  their  connections,  or 
Mrs.  Marie.  Just  three  months  after  en- 
tering the  Home,  I  was,  on  July  26,  1859, 
'  dismissed  to  the  parental  care  '  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Pachman,  of  Oneida  County,  New 
York.  My  memory  does  not  go  back  of 
that  summer  morning  when  I  was  carried  by 
Mr.  Pachman,  my  foster-father,  from  the 
depot  to  his  home.  On  receipt  of  constant 
good  reports  from  the  foster  parents  I  was 
legally  indentured  to  them  on  April  26, 
i860."  The  foster  parents  were  plain  farm- 
ing people  in  humble  circumstances.  They 
loved  John.  The  mother  was  always  kind 
to  him,  the  father  kind  in  his  rough  way  In 
the  earlier  years. 

"  I  was  sent  to  school  before  I  was  five 
years  old.  I  grew  tired  and  devised  every 
possible  means  of  running  away  from  school. 
To  cure  me  of  the  habit,  one  day  when  I 
reached  home  father  placed  me  under  a  large 
hogshead  and  sat  on  It  until  I  promised  never 
to  play  truant  again.  I  remained  In  my  not 
uncomfortable  quarters  for  an  hour  and  after 
due  deliberation  decided  to  go  to  school,  and 
from  that  time  gave  no  further  trouble  in 
that    respect.     My   education,    thus    happily 


LOOKING  BACKWARD  27 

begun,  was  doomed  by  force  of  circumstances 
to  be  interrupted."  When  John  once  told 
this  story  someone  remarked,  "  I  suppose  your 
father  sat  on  the  hogshead  and  read  his 
paper."  John  replied,  "  No,  he  could  not 
read."  The  family  became  poor  and  poorer. 
The  farm  was  sold  and  the  proceeds  quickly 
spent.  The  farmer  became  a  laborer;  his 
temper,  manners  and  language  deteriorated. 
Before  John  was  six  years  old,  they  intoxi- 
cated him  with  brandy  prescribed  for  his 
father's  illness,  and  enjoyed  the  result.  This 
set  his  heart  firmly  against  alcohol  and 
against  his  father's  violent  ways  and  lan- 
guage, and  against  his  political  party!  Be- 
tween his  sixth  and  twelfth  years  things  hap- 
pened that  both  showed  and  shaped  his  re- 
markable character. 

The  family  were  once  dispossessed  for 
non-payment  of  rent.  John  knew  the  sheriff 
was  coming,  locked  the  door  and  stood  be- 
fore it  with  the  key  in  his  pocket.  When 
the  sheriff  came  John  told  him  that  the 
family  needed  the  house  and  that  if  he 
wanted  the  key  to  put  them  out  he  must  get 
it  if  he  could.  The  sheriff  left  and  the 
family  remained.  The  little  lad  was  early 
put  to  work  and  thenceforth  contributed 
largely  to  the  support  of  the  family  until  he 
left  home  at  seventeen  years  of  age.     He 


28       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

did  chores  for  neighbors,  sometimes  for  his 
board,  that  he  might  attend  school  in  the  win- 
ter. He  broke  colts,  worked  as  a  farm  hand 
in  a  lumber  yard,  in  a  tannery.  For  three 
months  he  worked  in  a  saw  mill;  the  owner 
failed,  owing  John  forty-five  dollars  and  leav- 
ing him  in  debt  for  his  board.  "  My  entire 
wardrobe  one  summer  for  work,  church,  visit- 
ing, etc.,  was  one  straw  hat,  one  jean  frock 
and  one  pair  of  jean  overalls  —  nothing 
else."  He  was  such  a  forlorn  looking  boy 
that  some  of  the  older  boys  kept  harassing 
him.  Fie  stood  it  for  a  long  time,  then 
seized  the  biggest  bully  and  held  his  head 
under  the  pump  and  gave  him  a  good  drench- 
ing.    After  that  he  was  highly  respected. 

One  winter,  to  get  time  for  school,  he  rose 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  ate  a  scanty 
cold  breakfast  and  did  the  chores  at  his  own 
home;  walked  more  than  a  mile  to  clean  a 
neighbor's  stable,  curry  the  horses  and  milk 
the  cows;  repeated  this  for  a  third  family 
farther  on,  and  reached  school  before  nine 
o'clock.  Long  before  that  the  memory  of 
his  breakfast  had  vanished  and  he  was  rav- 
enously hungry  and  ate  up  his  luncheon.  At 
noon  this  sturdy  boy,  doing  the  work  of  three 
men  —  he  did  the  work  of  at  least  five  men 
during  his  manhood  years  —  says  he  would 
have  starved  had  not  his  fellow  schoolmates 


LOOKING  BACKWARD  29 

given  generously  of  their  nuts  and  apples. 
Evidently  he  was  the  John  we  knew  in  later 
years  and  to  the  end;  for  anyone  who  knew 
him  well  would  have  been  happy  to  make 
any  sacrifice  for  him  if  his  independence 
would  -accept  it.  "  I  went  to  the  village 
store  nights  and  began  to  smoke  there."  A 
man  whom  he  respected  spoke  to  him  about 
it  one  night.  "  I  threw  away  the  cigar  that 
I  had  lighted  and  have  never  wanted  one 
since." 

In  1872,  being  sixteen  years  old,  he  told 
his  foster-father  that  he  must  have  an  educa- 
tion; that  they  were  well  and  strong  and 
able  to  support  themselves;  that  he  would 
work  there  one  year  more  and  give  them  all 
that  he  earned;  and  after  that  start  out  for 
himself.  He  carried  out  his  program,  as 
he  always  carried  out  his  programs. 

The  beginning  of  John's  feeling  after  God 
and  of  his  religious  life  are  interesting.  He 
went  to  church  and  Sunday-school  when  he 
was  permitted  to  do  so.  "  When  about  four- 
teen years  old  I  learned  that  the  Sabbath 
should  be  hallowed.  I  had  many  scoldings, 
not  a  few  oaths  and  one  terrible  whipping 
with  a  strap  because  I  did  not  wish  to  work 
on  Sunday."  Two  years  later  a  schoolmate 
said  to  him,  as  they  walked  home  from  the 
village  store  one  night,  "  John,  do  you  know 


30      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

that  the  Bible  says  that  if  you  believe  in 
Jesus  and  confess  Him  here,  He  will  confess 
you  before  the  angels  when  you  die?  "  John 
said  that  he  had  never  heard  of  such  a  thing 
In  the  Bible.  Will  replied,  "Well,  it  is 
there,  and  if  you  want  to  enter  heaven  you 
must  confess  Christ  before  you  die."  John 
instantly  decided  that  he  would  confess  Christ 
when  occasion  offered.  At  the  meetings  dur- 
ing the  week  of  prayer  he  went  forward  one 
night  for  prayer  and  spoke  a  few  times. 
"  But,"  he  says,  "  I  had  no  religious  educa- 
tion except  that  God  was  angry  with  wicked 
boys  every  day  and  that  a  very  wicked  boy 
was  buttoned  up  in  John's  jacket  — when  he 
had  one.  Of  Jesus  and  His  love  for  me  I 
knew  absolutely  nothing." 

An  Incident  decisive  In  the  formation  of 
John's  character  had  occurred  a  few  days  be- 
fore this.  He  was  doing  chores  for  his 
board  during  the  winter  of  1872-73,  and  was 
attending  a  private  school  with  four  other 
pupils.  On  New  Year's  day  the  family  went 
visiting,  leaving  John  and  Will  at  home. 
The  boys  in  a  playful  scuffle  spilled  the  con- 
tents of  an  Ink  bottle  on  the  carpet.  They 
made  the  stain  worse  by  trying  to  rub  It  out, 
and  had  guilty  and  heavy  hearts  in  the  school 
room  the  next  day.  The  teacher  said, 
"  John,  I  would  like  to  see  you  a  moment  be- 


LOOKING  BACKWARD  31 

fore  you  go  home."  His  heart  sank;  but  she 
began  the  interview  by  asking  what  he  was 
going  to  make  of  himself,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  talk  urged  him  to  go  to  college  and  to 
fit  himself  for  the  ministry  or  some  other 
profession  to  make  his  life  the  most  valuable 
possible  for  God  and  the  world.  She  never 
spoke  of  the  stained  carpet.  Thenceforth 
John  dreamed  of  college. 

That  teacher  was  a  graduate  of  Mt.  Hol- 
yoke,  where  she  was  a  classmate  of  the  lady 
whom'  John  later  married.  She  became  a 
medical  missionary  in  China  and  Japan, 
Adeline  D.  H.  Kelsey,  now  living  in  West- 
dale,  New  York.  She  writes  in  part  as  fol- 
lows:  "A  child  of  ten  years,  I  was  looking 
for  the  little  boy  who  had  been  brought  to 
the  next  farm  from  the  Home  for  the 
Friendless  in  New  York.  There  he  sat  on 
the  gate  post,  a  chubby,  sturdy  little  fellow 
with  short,  tight  curls  all  over  his  head. 
The  lady  who  brought  John  said  she  never 
felt  so  badly  at  leaving  a  child  as  she  felt  at 
leaving  John  in  such  surroundings.  His  fos- 
ter parents  were  not  proper  people  to  have 
the  care  of  an  immortal  little  being.  At 
fifteen  when  I  taught  him,  he  was  an  un- 
couth, unmannerly,  and  unattractive  boy, 
having  been  brought  up  in  an  unmoral  home 
with  no  advantages.     He  had  not  sufficient 


32       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

clothing  to  be  clean  or  comfortable.  But  his 
whole  nature  responded  to  a  good  thought 
as  soon  as  It  was  presented.  I  had  a  Christ- 
mas tree  for  my  pupils,  a  most  simple  af- 
fair. My  little  nieces,  in  white  and  wearing 
evergreen  wreaths,  distributed  the  poor  little 
gifts.  John  received  a  little  present. 
Twenty  years  after  that,  John  told  me  that 
Christmas  eve  was  to  him  like  a  foretaste  of 
heaven;  he  had  never  dreamed  of  anything 
so  lovely,  and  his  soul  responded  and  ex- 
panded. I  next  heard  from  him  when  I  was 
in  China,  a  most  astonishing  letter  that  filled 
my  heart  with  humble  thanksgiving  that  I 
had  been  an  instrument  to  help  such  a  soul. 
He  said  that  whatever  success  in  life  he: 
might  be  able  to  accomplish  he  would  owe 
to  me,  under  God,  for  the  words  spoken  after 
the  incident  of  the  Ink  bottle." 

The  innate  nobility  of  soul  of  our  dear 
friend  showed  in  his  treatment  of  his  foster 
parents.  He  earned  money  for  them  from 
his  childhood  by  the  hardest  toil.  As  soon 
as  he  had  anything  to  spare  after  leaving 
them,  he  sent  It  to  them.  When  his  foster- 
father  died,  John  met  all  the  expense  of  doc- 
tor and  undertaken  He  supported  his  fos- 
ter-mother until  she  married  again,  and  hon- 
ored her  by  attending  her  funeral.  During 
all   my  life   and   experiences  with  men   and 


LOOKING  BACKWARD  33 

women  of  all  classes  and  many  races,  I  have 
never  met  with  one  human  being  that  so 
quickly  responded  to  every  higher  impulse, 
as  though  his  very  soul  were  hungry  for 
goodness  and  righteousness,  as  our  friend 
John  B.  Devins. 

It  was  in  the  spring  following  the  incident 
of  the  ink  bottle,  in  March,  1873,  ^^at  John 
left  his  home  and  went  to  Vernon  Center. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  FIRST  DAY  IN  NEW  YORK 

Very  early  on  an  October  morning  In 
1876  I  met  Mr.  Devins  at  the  Erie  Railroad 
station  in  Jersey  City.  His  appearance  was 
not  attractive  to  a  casual  glance.  His 
abundant  hair,  not  cut  in  New  York  style, 
hung  about  a  sunburned  and  freckled  face. 
His  clothes  of  the  cheapest  sort  were  much 
worn  and  had  no  fit.  He  carried  in  one 
hand  an  immense  old-fashioned  enameled 
cloth  satchel,  worn  white  at  innumerable 
cracks  and  collapsed,  except  for  a  few  things 
in  the  bottom  of  it;  and  In  the  other  hand 
the  traditional  faded  green  cotton  umbrella 
with  great  bulging  whalebone  ribs.  But  to 
anyone  who  knew  him  and  to  discerning  eyes 
such  as  two  that  looked  upon  him  that  after- 
noon, as  we  shall  see,  he  was  a  hero  and  a 
youth  moving  forward  into  a  great  career. 
After  breakfast  I  told  him  that  we  could 
spend  the  day  as  he  pleased  and  asked  him 
where  he  would  like  to  go.  "  Central 
Park,"  he  said.  He  always  knew  his  own 
mind  instantly  and  could  speak  it  in  few 
words.     After  Central  Park  and  lunch,  asked 

34 


FIRST  DAY  IN  NEW  YORK      35 

where  he  would  spend  the  afternoon,  he  re- 
plied instantly,  "  Home  for  the  Friendless." 
We  went  in  by  the  Thirtieth  Street  entrance 
to  the  home,  which  extended  through  from 
Twenty-ninth  Street,  where  the  Martha 
Washington  Hotel  now  stands,  A  young 
lady,  sitting  at  her  desk  in  the  reception 
room,  came  forward  to  ask  what  she  could 
do  for  us.  Seven  years  later  Mr.  Devins 
married  her.  Hers  were  immortal  eyes;  in- 
describable as  Mr.  Devins',  they  saw 
through  the  shabby  appearance  of  the  young 
man  to  the  great  mind  and  heart  of  him. 

She  was  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  Thorn- 
ton B.  Penfield,  who  had  written  on  a  piece 
of  paper  when  ten  years  old,  "  Dr.  Scudder 
asked  me  to  be  a  missionary  and  to  go  to 
India  and  help  him,  and  I  intend  to,"  and 
signed  his  name.  He  worked  his  way 
through  college,  and  the  young  married 
couple  went  to  the  Madura  mission  in  south- 
ern India,  only  seven  degrees  north  of  the 
equator. 

There  they  passed  through  a  cholera  epi- 
demic, forty-eight  miles  from  the  central  sta- 
tion and  a  doctor.  Feeling  that  this  was 
their  opportunity  to  gain  the  people's  confi- 
dence by  showing  sympathy  and  readiness  to 
aid  them,  they  threw  themselves  into  the 
work.     Mr.  Penfield  had  a  slight  attack  of 


36      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

cholera  and  never  recovered  from  the  effects, 
dying  one  year  later.  Three  hours  before 
he  died  their  third  child  was  born,  dying 
three  months  later.  Then  Mrs.  Penfield 
came  home  with  a  son  of  four  and  a  daughter 
of  two  years.  They  lived  in  Montclair  with 
her  father,  Joel  Miller  Hubbard,  who,  by 
the  way,  had  effected  the  purchase,  for  the 
ladies  of  the  Home  for  the  Friendless,  of  the 
land  on  which  the  Twenty-ninth  Street 
building  stood.  His  wife,  Mrs.  Penfield's 
mother,  was  one  of  the  corporate  members 
of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society 
and  Home  for  the  Friendless,  and  had  been 
on  the  executive  committee  and  was  corre- 
sponding secretary  for  years. 

Mrs.  S.  R.  I.  Bennett  was  secretary  at  the 
time  we  called  and  Mrs.  Penfield  was  assist- 
ant secretary.  Her  parents  cared  for  her 
little  ones  so  that  she  could  go  into  the  city 
for  daily  service  in  her  office.  She  already 
knew  all  about  Mr.  Devins,  for  she  had  writ- 
ten letters  to  him  and  about  him  and  was 
deeply  interested  in  him,  as  anyone  must  be 
who  knew  his  story.  Her  first  personal  let- 
ter to  him  signed  by  herself  had  been  writ- 
ten from  the  Home  at  Mrs.  Bennett's  request 
a  few  weeks  before.  That  letter,  which  lies 
before  me,  had  brave  golden  words  in  it, 
fitted  to   fill   Mr.   Devins'   heart  with   even 


FIRST  DAY  IN  NEW  YORK      37 

stronger  desire  to  be  a  missionary,  with  even 
greater  courage  and  faith  for  the  years  be- 
fore him  and  with  a  holy  admiration  for  the 
woman  who  could  write  it.  I  had  also  cor- 
responded with  Mrs.  Penfield  about  Mr. 
Devins  and  had  talked  with  her  about  him. 
We  were  therefore  like  three  old  friends. 

Mrs.  Penfield  showed  us  over  the  Home. 
I  can  see  Mr.  Devins'  face  to-day  as  I  saw 
it  then.  As  he  looked  upon  the  little  chil- 
dren studying  and  playing,  and  thought  how 
he  had  been  one  of  them  seventeen  years  be- 
fore, the  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks  un- 
known to  him  and  he  walked  as  in  a  dream. 
His  love  for  the  organization  which  had 
sheltered  him,  though  only  for  three  months, 
which  had  suffered  him  to  go  and  remain  in  a 
home  of  poverty  and  illiteracy,  never  les- 
sened. He  was  aware  that  the  extraordi- 
nary care  which  the  Society  practices  in  plac- 
ing its  children  and  always  looking  after  them 
had  been  singularly  thwarted  in  its  pur- 
pose in  his  case  and  apparently  without  any- 
body's fault  or  intention.  He  knew  that  the 
letters  from  his  foster  parents  which  had  in- 
duced the  Home  to  send  him  to  them  had  been 
written  for  them  by  humble  neighbors,  as 
they  themselves  could  not  write;  and  that  the 
statements  in  those  first  letters  and  through- 
out the  oflicial  correspondence  every  year,  as 


38       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  Society  tried  to  watch  over  his  welfare, 
had  been  truthful  from  the  point  of  view  of 
those  who  wrote  them,  though  greatly  mis- 
leading when  interpreted  from  the  point  of 
view  of  people  in  higher  social  and  financial 
position.  He  understood  that  it  was  one  of 
those  curious  cases  of  unintentional  misunder- 
standing depending  upon  a  conjunction  of 
circumstances,  very  likely  unique,  perhaps 
never  to  happen  again  in  the  history  of  the 
Society.  He,  therefore,  and  rightly,  judged 
the  Society  in  its  relation  to  him  by  its  tender 
intentions  and  faithful  watch  and  care 
through  the  years,  and  not  by  its  extraordi- 
nary partial  failure  to  secure  for  him  what  it 
supposed  it  was  effecting. 

From  this  time  forward  Mr.  Devins'  re- 
lations to  the  Society  and  the  Home  were 
constant,  close  and  helpful.  At  the  first  op- 
portunity to  get  into  New  York  again  he 
called  at  the  Home,  and  Mrs.  Penfield  showed 
him  all  the  records  regarding  himself,  in- 
cluding copies  of  all  letters  about  him.  Fie 
never  failed  from  that  time  until  his  death  to 
visit  the  Home  often.  He  loved  to  look 
upon  those  little  orphans  and  talk  with  them. 
His  great  heart  almost  burst  with  tenderness 
for  them.  He  loved  to  speak  about  the 
Home  and  its  work  to  others  in  private  and 
in  public.     How  much  he  gave  to  it  and  how 


FIRST  DAY  IN  NEW  YORK     39 

fnuch  he  secured  for  It  through  the  years  no 
one  knows.  He  was  elected  a  counselor  of 
the  Society  in  1906.  Of  course,  he  instantly 
assumed  all  possible  responsibility,  as  he  did 
in  every  trusteeship,  directorate  or  committee 
membership  that  came  to  him,  and  always 
without  assumption  of  authority.  He  found 
that  a  Christian  gentleman  had  offered  to 
give  toward  the  Endowment  Fund  of  this  in- 
stitution the  sum  of  $20,000,  provided 
an  equal  amount  be  raised  before  April  i, 
1909.  He  would  also  duplicate,  dollar  for 
dollar,  any  sum  to  the  amount  of  $100,000 
raised  before  June  i,  1909.  After  studying 
the  situation  thoroughly  Dr.  Devins  sug- 
gested to  the  counselors  that  they  should  be- 
come responsible  for  $1,000  toward  the 
$20,000  needed  to  secure  the  $20,000  con- 
ditionally offered.  The  counselors  acted 
upon  this  suggestion.  The  late  Dr.  H.  B. 
Silliman,  immediately  on  Dr.  Devins  asking 
him  for  aid  for  the  purpose,  gave  him 
$9,000.  The  remaining  amount  was  soon 
secured,  adding  $40,000  to  the  endowment 
of  the  Home;  and  in  a  short  time  a  total  of 
$64,502  was  raised,  which,  duplicated  by  the 
generous  offerer,  increased  the  endowment  by 
$129,004. 


CHAPTER  VI 

LIFE  IN  ELIZABETH,  N.  J. 

Mr.  Devins'  home  In  Elizabeth  was  in 
the  manse  of  the  Third  Presbyterian  church. 
The  mistress  of  the  manse,  who  had  learned 
to  love  and  admire  him  and  to  call  him 
"  Brother  John  "  in  Vernon  Center,  was  de- 
lighted to  receive  him  into  the  family  and  to 
help  him,  as  an  older  sister  might,  to  learn 
such  of  the  conventionalities  of  society  as  he 
happened  not  to  know.  He  never  needed 
reproof  or  admonition.  His  alert  eyes  fore- 
stalled his  ears  in  making  acquaintance  with 
such  things.  A  hint  at  the  most  was  all  that 
was  ever  required.  His  love,  his  devotion, 
his  alert  thoughtfulness,  his  courtesy  and 
helpfulness  enriched  the  life  of  the  manse. 
The  two  babies  and  the  passing  of  one  of 
them  to  the  better  home  influenced  deeply  his 
mind  and  heart.  He  met  also  in  that  home 
visitors  whom  to  know  was  worth  while  for 
him.  Dr.  Everard  Kempshall  and  Dr.  W. 
C.  Roberts,  pastors  of  the  First  and  West- 
minster churches  in  Elizabeth,  Dr.  John 
Hall,  Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler,  Mr.  Edward  Kim- 
ball,   and  many  others,   were   guests   there. 

40 


Little   Mattie   Ray  and   "Uncle   My  Don." 

(This    picture   of   Mr.    Devins   is  taken   from   an  old   and 
much  prized  tintype) 


I 


LIFE  IN  ELIZABETH,  N.  J.      41 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  MuUer,  of  England 
and  of  "  The  Kingdom  of  Answered 
Prayer,"  were  entertained  there  for  a  week, 
and  not  a  few  home  and  foreign  missionaries. 

The  Rev.  John  F.  Pingry,  D.D.,  of  holy 
and  happy  memory,  received  Mr.  Devins  into 
his  notable  preparatoi7  school,  limited  to  one 
hundred  boys,  and  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  earn  his  tuition  and  most  of  his  school 
books  by  janitor  and  other  service;  but  this 
kindness,  great  as  it  was,  was  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  warm  friendship  that  the 
blessed  doctor  bestowed  upon  him. 

Mr.  Devins'  church  relations  in  Elizabeth 
strongly  influenced  his  character.  Had  he 
been  a  member  of  either  the  First  or  Second 
or  Westminster  church  he  might  have  gone 
through  his  educational  course  into  the  minis- 
try in  parlor-car  style;  for  those  churches  had 
wealth  in  a  worldly  as  well  as  a  heavenly 
sense,  and  would  have  admired  and  helped 
him  without  limit.  The  Third  Church  had 
no  worldly  wealth,  little  style  and  but  one 
college  graduate  in  its  pews;  but  it  had 
heavenly  wealth  in  extraordinary  measure. 
It  was  a  church  chiefly  of  young  people  be- 
ginning to  make  their  way  in  the  world,  and 
making  their  way  toward  higher  things  at  a 
rare  rate  of  advance.  They  were  devoted 
students  of  the  Bible,  devoted  workers  in  the 


42       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

vineyard  of  their  Lord,  and  most  self-sacri- 
ficing givers  to  it;  that  small  church  carried 
on  three  missions  in  different  portions  of 
Elizabeth.  Fellowship  in  work  and  worship, 
in  thought  and  prayer,  with  such  a  company 
of  people,  with  whose  spirit  he  was  in  such 
absolute  sympathy,  was  invaluable  to  him. 
Those  people  recognized  his  worth  and  lov- 
ableness.  Almost  every  organization  in  the 
church  contributed  what  it  could  to  make  his 
home  in  the  manse  possible  and  to  meet  his 
simple  necessities.  Words  cannot  tell  how 
it  irked  him  to  receive  "  charity."  He 
would  a  thousand  times  rather  have  declined 
any  help ;  but  so  compelling  was  the  heavenly 
call  to  foreign  mission  work  that  he  forced 
himself  to  bear  that  cross  of  "  charity  "  for 
two  years  longer.  Then  he  threw  it  off,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  and  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment  repaid  everybody  who  had  helped 
him  with  money,  an  overestimated  amount 
with  interest  up  to  the  date  of  payment. 

He  always  attended  every  church  meeting 
of  every  kind;  on  Sunday  the  young  men's 
meeting  before  service,  the  regular  service 
and  the  Sunday-school,  where  he  soon  had  a 
class  of  boys;  in  the  afternoon  he  taught  in 
the  Sunday-school  of  the  Third  Avenue  Mis- 
sion, called  upon  the  parents  of  his  scholars 
and  others  and  attended  the  evening  meet- 


LIFE  IN  ELIZABETH,  N.  J.      43 

ing  at  the  mission,  in  which  he  at  once  began 
to  speak  and  then  regularly  preached  until 
he  left  Elizabeth.  Every  week  he  attended 
the  church  and  Third  Avenue  Mission  prayer 
meetings,  the  teachers'  training  class  and 
everything  that  was  going  on  in  the  church. 
Every  vacation  he  worked  at  Ocean  Grove, 
where  the  family  had  a  summer  cottage,  one 
summer  having  charge  of  the  ice  business 
there.  There  he  was  a  universal  friend  and 
favorite.  In  the  surf  he  was  the  strongest 
and  kindest  of  helpers  to  women  and  chil- 
dren, giving  his  attention  not  only  to  his 
friends,  but  to  anybody  who  needed  help  — 
and  among  the  many  thousands  who  pic-' 
nicked  there  constantly  there  were  plenty  who 
were  steadied,  or  picked  up,  or  helped  in  or 
or  out  by  his  strong  arm,  or  encouraged  or 
soothed  by  his  rich  voice.  He  loved  es- 
pecially to  forget  everything  else  in  the  world 
in  looking  after  the  "  kiddies,"  although  they 
were  not  called  by  that  title  at  that  time. 

He  lived  on  the  run.  The  Commercial 
Advertiser  of  New  York  published  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph  in  1901  :  "An  interesting 
story  is  told  in  connection  with  the  bestowal 
by  Center  College,  Kentucky,  of  the  degree 
of  doctor  of  divinity  on  the  Rev.  John  Ban- 
croft Devins,  of  The  Observer.  It  seems 
that  when  Dr.   Devins  was  a  schoolboy  he 


44       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

used  to  pass  several  times  a  day  the  house  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  William  C.  Roberts,  now  presi- 
dent of  Center  College.  The  young  student 
always  went  with  a  rush.  Dr.  Roberts,  ob- 
serving young  Devins  daily,  finally  inquired 
who  he  was,  and  remarked:  'We'll  hear 
from  that  boy  one  of  these  days.'  The  emi- 
nent divine  kept  his  eyes  on  the  diligent  lad 
in  his  after  career,  and  last  week  had  the 
pleasure  of  conferring  the  highest  honors  of 
the  college  on  him."  If  one  cared  to 
imagine  Mr.  Devins'  occupations  and  activi- 
ties in  Elizabeth,  adding  to  those  already 
listed  the  studying  he  did  to  be  prepared  to 
enter  college  with  less  than  two  school  years 
of  actual  work,  and  his  constant  doing  of 
time-taking  courtesies  and  kindnesses  for 
everybody,  one  would  not  be  surprised  that 
he  broke  down.  The  doctor  sent  him  off  in 
midwinter  to  chop  down  trees  and  then  to 
chop  them  up  in  his  old  home,  and  in  the 
spring  to  go  into  farm  work  for  some  months. 
John  was  impatient  through  it  all.  There 
are  two  kinds  of  impatience.  One  is  that  of 
the  little,  unreasonable  mind;  the  other,  tem- 
peramental, pyschologists  tell  us,  is  one  of 
the  notes  of  a  strong  character  which  feels 
compelled  to  be  doing  things  and  doing  them 
now.  It  required  some  argument  and  ap- 
peal to  his  highest  ideals  to  hold  him  away 


LIFE  IN  ELIZABETH,  N.  J.      45 

from  books  all  that  time;  but  he  had  that 
sublime  patience,  the  patience  of  an  impatient 
man  ruling  his  own  spirit,  that  is  great.  He 
came  back  from  the  woods  and  farm  with 
reinforced  vitality  that  never  failed  him 
again  until  near  the  end. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    UNIVERSITY 

Mr.  Devins  entered  the  Freshman  class 
of  New  York  University  in  the  fall  of  1878, 
going  in  five  or  six  days  a  week  from  Eliza- 
beth. In  a  few  weeks  he  announced  that  he 
would  henceforth  live  in  New  York  and 
would  accept  no  more  gifts  of  money  from 
us  or  from  anyone.  He  said  he  was  sure 
that  if  his  Master  desired  him  to  be  a  foreign 
missionary  he  would  help  him  to  work  his 
own  way  and  to  pay  back  all  that  he  had  so 
far  received  in  charity.  He  must  have  had 
very  little  money  in  his  pocket,  but  he  de- 
clined to  accept  more.  He  rented  an  un- 
furnished room  on  West  Ninth  Street,  be- 
tween Fifth  and  Sixth  Avenues;  and  this 
room,  his  chosen  home  for  some  years,  is 
worth  describing.  In  the  attic  of  the  four- 
story  and  basement  house  the  only  window 
was  a  small  skylight  in  the  center  of  the  flat 
roof,  which  could  be  opened  and  closed  by  a 
cord  hanging  down.  The  room,  three  or 
four  yards  square,  had  rough  board  walls 
running  from  the  floor  to  the  roof  and  cov- 
ered   with    wall    paper.     Mr.    Devins    fur- 

46 


THE  UNIVERSITY  47 

nished  it  with  a  cot  and  bedding,  a 
small  table,  a  chair  and  a  lamp,  all  from  a 
second  hand  store,  and  his  trunk.  His  only 
outlook  from  the  room  was  to  the  stars,  to 
which  he  hitched  his  wagon.  Here  I  usually 
saw  him  on  Mondays  when  I  went  over  to 
Ministers'  Meeting.  He  never  talked  much 
about  himself  and  I  never  asked  many  ques- 
tions. On  one  of  the  first  Mondays  he  told 
me  that  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Whitelaw 
Reld  of  The  Tribune,  stating  his  position 
and  his  desire  to  get  into  newspaper  work  for 
self-support  while  going  through  the  uni- 
versity. Mr.  Reid  replied  with  a  note 
making  an  appointment  at  his  office.  There, 
after  a  little  talk,  Mr.  Reid  introduced  him 
to  the  city  editor-in-chief,  asking  that  he  be 
given  work.  He  was  told  to  send  in  local 
news  and  he  would  receive  at  the  rate  of  six 
dollars  a  column  for  as  much  of  it  as  should 
be  printed.  That  was  his  means  of  support 
until  the  next  midsummer.  He  had  had  a 
trifle  of  experience  in  reporting  In  Elizabeth, 
sending  The  Elizabeth  Journal  frequent 
reports  of  my  sermons.  He  took  notes  dur- 
ing the  preaching  and  corrected  them  after 
church  by  my  manuscript  of  the  sermon. 
That  was  excellent  training  so  far  as  it  went; 
for  he  resolutely  pursued  that  course  Instead 
of   using   the    manuscript   without   previous 


48       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

notes  of  his  own,  as  most  busy  young  men 
would  have  done  —  a  strong  indication  of  a 
great  personahty.  He  sent  The  Tribune 
such  daily  items  as  he  could  pick  up  at  the 
university  and  elsewhere,  and  some  of  them 
were  printed.  He  thus  earned  sixty  dollars 
in  the  first  seven  or  eight  months,  and  he  kept 
his  expenses  within  his  income. 

A  characteristic  and  decisive  event  oc- 
curred early  in  his  experience  as  a  reporter. 
One  Monday  morning  he  showed  me  a  scrib- 
bled note  from  his  chief,  the  paper  bearing 
also  a  paragraph  clipped  from  The  Tri- 
bune and  pasted  on.  The  paragraph  re- 
ferred to  a  new  conservatory  of  music.  The 
scribbling  said  that  there  was  no  such  con- 
servatory, and  that  accuracy  was  expected  of 
reporters.  I  said  that  was  rather  rough. 
He  replied:  "  It  is  rather  rough  on  the  ed- 
itor !  There  is  such  a  new  conservatory.  I 
shall  interview  the  president  of  It  after 
classes  to-day  and  have  a  column  about  it  in 
The  Tribune  to-morrow  morning."  He 
found  the  conservatory  in  a  new  handsome 
building  uptown,  having  a  corps  of  'forty 
professors,  one  of  them  being  Mr.  Theodore 
Thomas.  He  showed  the  editor's  letter  to 
the  president  and  said:  "  If  you  will  show 
me  over  the  building,  give  me  your  printed 
matter  and  talk  to  me  about  the  conserve- 


THE  UNIVERSITY  49 

tory  I  will  have  a  column  about  it  In   The 
Tribime  to-morrow." 

When  they  returned  to  the  office  the  presi- 
dent said:  "  Shall  you  really  have  a  column 
about  us  in  The  Tribune? "  "  Yes." 
"  Well,  that  will  be  worth  a  great  deal  to 
us."  "  I  am  not  doing  it  for  you,  but  for 
myself;  I  want  to  get  right  with  the  city 
editor  and  I  want  the  six  dollars."  The 
president  wrote  at  his  desk  a  minute  and 
handed  Mr.  Devins  an  order  for  anyone 
whose  name  should  be  written  in  by  Mr. 
Devins  to  take  the  courses  of  the  conserva- 
tory free.  He  was  warmly  thanked,  the  or- 
der was  handed  back  to  him,  and  he  was  told 
that  Mr.  Devins  expected  to  support  himself 
by  reporting  for  a  few  years  and  had  de- 
cided that  he  must  accept  no  gifts  from  those 
about  whom  he  wrote.  Mr.  Devins  went 
away  and  the  president  put  on  his  hat  and 
went  to  see  his  friend,  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid, 
to  tell  him  the  story.  When  Mr.  Devins 
reached  The  Tribune  office  that  evening  he 
was  told  that  they  had  given  him  a  regular 
assignment  on  the  staff. 

He  made  most  of  his  living,  such  as  It  was, 
in  this  way  for  three  years.  He  borrowed 
on  his  personal  notes  from  some  of  those 
well-known  New  York  givers  who  were  ac- 
customed to  make  such  advances  to  students 


50      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

in  whom  they  believed.  He  repaid  these 
loans  a  few  years  later  with  interest. 
The  pleased  and  commendatory  letters  of  the 
givers  acknowledging  payments  are  before 
me.  The  givers  were  his  staunch  friends 
as  long  as  they  or  he  lived.  The  little- 
schooled,  tremendously-overworked  young 
student  could  not  wholly  satisfy  the  editor- 
in-chief.  Mr.  Devins  wrote  him  in  the  fol- 
lowing April  asking  an  appointment  as  re- 
porter during  the  summer  vacation.  The 
editor's  reply  lies  before  me.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly kind  with  the  kindness  of  a  tender  par- 
ent who  takes  his  boy  and  a  strap  out  to  the 
woodshed.  Their  staff  is  over-full.  Even 
if  it  were  not,  Mr.  Devins  could  not  be  en- 
gaged, for  his  style  is  crude  and  rough  and 
careless.  He  has  not  the  qualities  for  suc- 
cess in  journalism  —  all  written  with  sincere 
regret  that  it  must  be  so.  Mr.  Devins  in- 
terviewed him  at  once.  He  was  inexorable, 
said  that  it  was  a  pity  to  spoil  a  good  me- 
chanic or  farmer  to  make  a  poor  literary  man 
—  it  was  a  sheer  waste  of  time. 

Mr.  Devins  was  depressed  but  not 
daunted.  He  secured  files  of  The  Tri- 
bune and  for  two  months  made  such  a  des- 
perately concentrated  thorough  study  of  them 
as  few  other  men  could  have  made  even  if 
they  had  nothing  else  to  do.     Then  he  wrote 


THE  UNIVERSITY  51 

to  the  city  editor-in-chief  again,  thanking  him 
for  his  affectionate  chastisement  by  which  he 
had  profited  greatly,  stating  that  he  had  tried 
to  improve  himself  —  but  not  telling  of  his 
study  of  The  Tribune  columns  —  and 
begging  the  privilege  of  reporting  the  ap- 
proaching commencement  exercises  of  New 
York  University.  The  editor  summoned 
him  to  the  office,  seemed  amazed  at  his  te- 
meiity,  really  taken  off  his  feet.  He  asked 
him  if  he  had  a  dress  suit.  Of  course  the 
poor  fellow  had  none.  But  the  editor  as- 
signed him  the  Baccalaureate  sermon  and 
some  part  in  all  the  other  exercises  of  the 
week,  and  in  a  few  weeks  placed  him  per- 
manently on  the  reportorial  staff  at  a  salary 
of  a  thousand  dollars  a  year. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE    "  TRIBUNE  " 


Mr.  Devins  rapidly  grew  in  favor  with 
The  Tribune.  Letters  from  the  city  editor- 
in-chief,  running  through  the  years,  show  that 
Mr.  Devins  was  increasingly  given  assign- 
ments of  especial  importance,  delicacy,  diffi- 
culty and  urgency,  and  those  on  which  other 
reporters  "  fell  down."  At  the  time  of  the 
Yorktown  centennial  celebration,  in  October, 
1 88 1,  the  French  government  sent  the  Mar- 
quis de  Rochambeau,  a  descendant  of  Lafay- 
ette, at  the  head  of  a  notable  delegation, 
with  suitable  retinue,  to  represent  that  coun- 
try. The  Tribune  detailed  Mr.  Devins  to 
go  down  the  bay  with  a  tugboat  to  welcome 
the  delegation;  and  also  to  accompany  them 
during  their  stay  in  this  country,  reporting 
daily  to  The  Tribune  by  mail  and  telegraph. 
The  Marquis  and  his  wife  became  exceed- 
ingly fond  of  Mr.  Devins.  They  were  ap- 
palled that  a  young  man  of  such  extraordi- 
nary gifts  and  character  should  have  to  throw 
so  much  time  and  energy  into  work  for  food 
and  clothes,  and  they  besought  him  to  return 
to  Paris  with  them  and  live  in  their  family  as 

52 


THE  "TRIBUNE"  53 

their  son  until  his  education  should  be  fin- 
ished. They  were  not  singular  in  that  kind 
desire.  His  professors  in  university  and 
theological  seminary  constantly  urged  him  to 
accept  assistance  to  free  him  from  outside 
work;  their  expressions  in  letters  now  before 
me  are  exceedingly  kind  and  emphatic.  At 
least  four  distinguished  clergymen,  Dr.  How- 
ard Crosby,  Dr.  John  Hall,  Dr.  William  M. 
Paxton  and  Dr.  Charles  S.  Robinson,  besides 
not  a  few  laymen  and  women  desired  him  to 
live  in  their  homes  and  accept  their  assistance 
until  ready  for  the  ministry,  but  none  of  these 
things  moved  him. 

The  Tribune  sent  him  as  its  representa- 
tive to  Saratoga  in  1883  to  report  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  every  day  by  post  and  wire. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  Assembly  Dr.  How- 
ard Crosby  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  White- 
law  Reid  of  The  Tribune,  thanking  him  that 
for  the  first  time  a  newspaper  had  sent  a  re- 
porter to  an  Assembly  not  in  its  own  city, 
and  for  the  conspicuous  fullness,  fairness 
and  uniform  high  excellence  of  the  reports. 
Dr.  Crosby  secured  the  willing  signatures  of 
all  leading  ministers  and  laymen  of  the  As- 
sembly to  this  letter.  Thenceforth  Mr. 
Devins  attended  and  reported  every  As- 
sembly excepting  that  of  1909  at  Denver, 
twenty-eight  in  all.     He  reported  them  not 


54      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

only  for  The  Tribune,  but  also  for  such  pa- 
pers as  the  Pittsburgh  Gazette,  Washington 
Post,  Chicago  Tribune,  Chicago  Record-Her- 
ald, Indianapolis  Journal,  Baltimore  Sun, 
Springfield  Republican,  Toledo  Blade,  Cin- 
cinnati Gazette,  Louisville  Courier- Journal, 
St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  Omaha  Bee,  and 
others,  as  well  as  for  many  religious  weeklies 
of  various  denominations.  He  usually  took 
stenographers  and  typewriters  with  him  and 
employed  others  locally.  I  was  often  awed 
when  I  watched  him  at  night  at  the  Assem- 
blies, handling  easily  his  masses  of  carbon 
copies  of  reports  and  addresses,  the  minutes 
of  the  clerks  and  his  own  notes,  dictating  as 
many  as  seven  different  reports  for  different 
papers  at  the  same  time,  each  giving  just  the 
sort  of  news  and  at  the  length  that  paper 
wanted,  all  admirable.  Sometimes  he  re- 
ported for  several  papers  in  the  same  city  — 
three  once  in  Chicago,  I  remember  —  no  two 
of  the  reports  resembling  each  other.  In  his 
many  reports  for  secular  and  religious  papers 
during  the  long  excessive  heats  of  the  Briggs 
and  Smith  controversies,  extreme  partisans 
of  either  side  accused  him  of  unfairness  as 
against  their  side;  but  fair-minded  men  of  all 
parties  took  pains  to  express  to  him  their 
warm  approval  of  his  work. 

When  Mr.   Devlns  was  regularly  placed 


THE  "TRIBUNE"  55 

on  The  Tribune  reportorlal  staff  at  a  salary 
of  $1,000,  he  became  a  favorite  with  every- 
body In  the  office;  but  he  never  wasted  time 
there.  He  asked  permission  to  fill  in  spare 
minutes  editing  copy,  and  that  he  did  for 
some  time  without  additional  pay.  This 
hard-driven  theological  student  by  that  time 
married,  and  having  two  step-children  to  sup- 
port, apparently  could  not  find  enough  to  do. 
Result;  a  break-down?  Not  at  all:  a  going 
up.  A  vacancy  occurring,  he  was  appointed 
night  editor,  being  the  only  man  who  had 
fitted  himself  for  the  place;  and  that  position 
he  held  as  long  as  he  remained  with  Tht 
Tribune.  He  studied  by  day  and  worked  at 
The  Tribune  office  at  night.  He  reached 
home  from  the  office  between  two  and  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  slept  until  ten. 
Then  Mrs.  Devins  awakened  him,  gave  him 
his  breakfast  and  said  good-by  as  he  rushed 
up  to  Union  Seminary  to  study  and  recite 
there  until  six  o'clock.  Mrs.  Devins  met 
him  there  and  then  dined  with  him  at  a  res- 
taurant, accompanied  him  to  The  Tribune 
office  —  about  the  only  time  they  had  for 
visiting  —  and  went  home  alone  while  he 
took  up  his  night  work.     So  the  years  went 

by. 

During  his  services  as  a  reporter  he  was 
assigned  to  all  notable  Sunday  services  and 


56      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

had  charge  of  everything  pertaining  to  ec- 
clesiastical matters,  charities  and  corrections 
and  the  public  parks.  For  many  years  he 
filled  the  weekly  column,  "  What  a  Pastor 
Sees  and  Hears,"  in  The  Tribune.  He  also 
wrote  innumerable  sketches  and  lives  of 
prominent  people,  either  for  immediate  use 
or  for  burial  in  the  office  "  graveyard," 
whence  they  were  resurrected  for  memo- 
rial or  other  exigencies.  He  became  ac- 
quainted with  practically  all  people  in  New 
York  best  worth  knowing;  a  knowledge  of 
great  value  when  he  later  became  editor  of 
The  Observer.  As  an  incidental  and  valu- 
able result  of  his  newspaper  experience  he 
was  able  to  guide  his  step-son  in  working  his 
passage  over  the  wide  and  stormy  sea  of 
university  and  seminary  education. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MARRIAGE  AND  SEMINARY 

As  already  related  in  these  reminiscences, 
when  Mr.  Devins  called  at  the  Home  for  the 
Friendless  on  the  first  day  in  New  York,  he 
was  received  by  the  Assistant  Secretary,  Mrs. 
Charlotte  E.  Penfield,  who,  after  the  death 
of  her  husband,  the  Rev.  Thornton  B.  Pen- 
field,  at  their  foreign  mission  station  in  In- 
dia, had  returned  with  her  two  little  children 
to  the  home  of  her  parents  in  Montclair. 
Whenever  he  was  in  New  York  he  called  at 
the  Home  where  it  was  Mrs.  Penfield's  duty 
to  receive  him.  After  he  entered  New  York 
University  and  went  to  live  In  New  York 
City,  he  often  dropped  In  at  the  Home,  usu- 
ally with  a  bit  of  news  concerning  his  affairs. 
He  attended  every  public  reception  and  al- 
ways loved  an  opportunity  to  see  the  chil- 
dren and  speak  to  them  and  with  them.  If 
Mrs.  Penfield  was  not  at  hand  when  he 
called,  she  was  sent  for,  as  the  ladies  seemed 
to  place  the  responsibility  of  his  entertain- 
ment on  her.  She  soon  found  how  helpful 
he  was,  always  to  be  relied  upon  to  do  what 
was  needful.     At  a  meeting  of  the  executive 

57 


58       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

committee  a  legal  question  arose  and  Mrs. 
Penfield  was  asked  to  find  out  about  it.  She 
asked  Mr.  Devins,  a  Harvard  law  student,  a 
full-fledged  lawyer,  and  a  business  man,  and 
said  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  "  You 
mark  my  words,  the  replies  will  come  In  In 
the  order  named."  And  so  they  did;  first 
Mr.  Devins'  with  the  desired  information, 
full,  clear  and  satisfactory;  the  others  fol- 
lowing later,  but  none  with  sufliclent  informa- 
tion. 

This  state  of  things  lasted  more  than  six 
years;  she  was  "Sister"  and  he  was 
"  Brother,"  and  "  Uncle  John  "  to  her  chil- 
dren. He  visited  at  her  home  In  Montclair. 
She  was  the  best  friend  in  the  world  to  him 
and  the  most  helpful.  Her  lucid  mind,  col- 
lege training,  wide  travel  and  reading,  for- 
eign missionary  experiences,  bereavements, 
cares  and  responsibilities,  and  her  great  heart 
and  childlike  faith  like  his,  united  to  make 
her  the  one  woman  In  the  world  for  him. 
Her  father  died;  then  her  mother.  She  had 
a  critical  Illness,  pneumonia.  Mr.  Devins 
was  full  of  sympathy,  distress,  devotion  and 
helpfulness.  They  read  their  own  hearts 
truly  then,  and  each  other's.  They  were  mar- 
ried on  October  i8,  1883. 

Mr.  Devins  then  took  up  again  his  Inter- 
rupted course  In  Union  Theological  Seminary 


MARRIAGE  AND  SEMINARY     59 

and  carried  it  to  completion,  meantime  acting 
also  as  night  editor  on  The  Tribune  staff. 
He  was  constantly  busy  with  an  extraordi- 
nary activity  and  success.  He  was  restless 
and  impatient,  not  with  a  nervous  fussy  habit 
but  with  intense  desire  to  repay  all  who  had 
ever  given  him  financial  help,  and  to  get 
quickly  into  some  mission  field.  He  was  con- 
stantly'  thinking  out  plans  to  shorten  his 
course  at  one  point  or  another  and  constantly, 
after  consideration,  continuing  in  the  usual 
theological  course  and  doing  two  or  three 
men's  work  in  addition  for  The  Tribune, 
for  the  Fresh  Air  Work,  and  giving  a  hand 
to  help  over  the  stile  every  lame  dog  he  came 
across.  The  Inexhaustible  love  of  his  great 
heart,  fed  by  the  love  of  God  within  him,  a 
well  of  water  springing  up  Into  everlasting 
life,  flowed  abundantly,  refreshingly,  enrich- 
ingly,  to  every  human  heart  he  touched  or 
heard  of.  He  had  a  terrible  time  with  He- 
brew. He  wanted  to  be  excused  from  it,  but 
the  Seminary  faculty  would  not  excuse  him. 
Was  he  incapable  of  conquering  Hebrew? 
Remember  the  enormous  work  he  was  doing 
outside  of  the  Seminary.  When  the  faculty 
gave  their  ultimatum, —  Hebrew  or  quit, — 
he  took  hold  of  Hebrew  with  both  hands 
and  all  his  heart  and  in  a  short  time  passed 
a  successful  examination. 


6o      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Mr.  Devins  took  his  theology  from  Doc- 
tor Howard  Crosby,  and  I  doubt  if  it  was 
modified  —  only  filled  out  —  during  his  sem- 
inary course  or  in  later  years.  He  under- 
stood it  and  the  arguments  for  it,  and  stored 
it  up  in  his  mind  as  a  standard  by  which  to 
test  all  theological  views  that  might  after- 
wards come  to  his  notice.  Remember  that 
he  had  no  time  as  other  seminary  students 
had  to  discuss  the  work  of  the  class-room.  I 
doubt  if  he  ever  re-opened  theological  ques- 
tions after  that.  He  sincerely  received  and 
adopted  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith 
as  a  summary  of  scriptural  teaching.  But 
his  actual  working  creed  was  very  brief. 
He  lived  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  who 
loved  him  and  gave  Himself  for  him,  that 
giving  being  constant  every  moment.  He 
became  as  a  little  child  and  saw  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  and  entered  more  wholly  into 
it  year  by  year  to  the  last.  The  time  and 
thought  and  nervous  energy  that  most  of  us 
ministers  give  to  vexed  questions  of  theology, 
he  poured  during  every  waking  moment  into 
devout  Christ-like  service  to  every  person 
and  every  cause  that  he  could  help.  He 
found  in  unremitting,  self-denying  work  for 
the  poor  and  the  humble,  an  infinitely  higher 
satisfaction  than  men  ever  gain  from  their 
restless  wonderings  and  wanderings  in  theo- 


MARRIAGE  AND  SEMINARY     6i 

logical  fields.  He  lived  a  life  of  prayer.  I 
do  not  know  that  he  ever  "  agonized  in 
prayer,"  but  the  presence,  love  and  goodness 
of  God  were  as  simply  and  naturally  real  and 
vital  to  him  as  were  each  day's  supply  of  at- 
mosphere, food  and  opportunity,  and  each 
night's  rest. 

Possibly  these  facts  sufficiently  account  for 
his  tolerance.  It  began  early  and  increased 
to  the  last.  He  judged  no  one,  hated  no 
one,  opposed  no  one,  on  account  of  theolog- 
ical differences.  He  applied  to  preachers  the 
only  test  which  his  Lord  said  should  be  ap- 
plied to  them:  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them."  Where  Mr.  Devins  saw  the 
Christ-like  spirit  and  Christ-like  labors,  he 
ignored  creedal  differences.  He  held  his 
own  theological  views  with  that  invincible 
tenacity  which  was  an  element  of  his  great- 
ness, but  he  never  made  them  a  test  of  fel- 
lowship. Service  for  God  and  men  was  his 
test.  He  did  not  like  theological  discussion; 
he  saw  no  use  in  it.  He  loved  and  worked; 
that  was  sufficient. 

It  seemed  part  of  his  character  that  while 
his  ethical  standards  were  very  high  and  his 
ethical  judgments  exceedingly  severe,  and  he 
hated,  loathed  and  abhorred  sin  and  every 
sin,  in  regarding  each  individual  sinner  he 
was  the  most  forgiving,  helpful  and  hopeful 
rnan  I  have  ever  met, 


CHAPTER  X 

HOPE  CHAPEL 

Graduating  from  Union  Theological  Sem- 
inary in  1887,  several  considerations  for- 
bade Mr.  Devins'  going  to  a  foreign  mission 
field.  Opportunities  of  service  in  different 
states  were  offered  him,  but  his  heart  drew 
him  with  irresistible  attraction  to  the  region 
where  he  had  been  born,  to  a  life-work  among 
the  teeming  multitudes  of  the  lower  East 
Side  of  New  York,  and  there  he  lived  dur- 
ing all  but  the  last  year  or  two  of  his  life. 
He  became  pastor  of  Hope  Chapel  in  East 
Fourth  Street  near  Avenue  D  in  December, 
1888.  The  chapel  work  was  carried  on,  as 
it  had  been  for  many  years,  by  the  Fourth 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Church  of  which  Dr. 
Howard  Crosby  was  pastor  and  Mr.  Devins 
had  been  a  member  more  than  four  years. 
What  the  ministers  of  New  York  thought  of 
him  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  Dr.  R.  S. 
MacArthur  of  Calvary  Baptist  Church 
preached  the  sermon,  Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke 
of  the  Brick  Church  gave  the  charge  to  the 
people  and  Dr.  Crosby  gave  the  charge  to 
the  pastor.     Doctor  Crosby's  charge  began 

62 


Mr.   Devins  at  32. 


•  •  HOPE  CHAPEL   '  .  63 

with  the  following  paragraph :  "  It  is  with 
more  than  ordinary  emotion  that  I  perform 
this  duty  to-night.  I  have  known  you  for 
many  years;  you  have  struggled  against 
heavy  odds  at  times;  you  have  been  in  posi- 
tions when  nothing  but  a  courageous  heart 
could  have  carried  you  through.  You  have 
been  a  faithful  man,  never  afraid  of  toil,  and 
always  looking  forward  to  your  ministerial 
experience  which  begins  to-night.  You  have 
not  only  excited  my  admiration,  but  the  ten- 
derest  emotions  of  love.  Hence  it  is  that  I 
take  such  a  high  pleasure  in  welcoming  you 
to  this  pulpit." 

Mr.  Devins  and  his  family  occupied  the 
upper  floor  of  the  chapel  building,  erected  for 
the  Dry  Dock  Savings  Bank  and  occupied  by 
the  bank  until  it  removed  to  the  Bowery, 
when  the  Fourth  Avenue  Church  purchased 
it  for  its  mission.  There  was  a  constant 
stream  of  callers  on  business  or  pleasure  bent, 
for  a  thousand  families  whom  Mr.  Devins 
reckoned  In  his  pastorate  had  many  needs  for 
help;  and  while  the  rooms  were  not  attract- 
ive, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  were,  and  their 
friends  were  willing  to  climb  Innumerable 
stairs  to  find  them.  Mr.  Devins'  activities 
in  the  Hope  Chapel  work  and  for  that  vast 
East  Side  population  were  extraordinary.  A 
mere  catalogue  of  them  would  be  wearisome. 


64      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  form  or  method  of 
mission  work  practiced  among  such  a  popula- 
tion was  not  thoroughly  studied  by  him  and 
put  into  operation  if  it  had  been  proved  suc- 
cessful; and  that  he  originated  and  brought 
to  success  not  a  few  additional  methods  of 
serving  such  populations. 

Notes  for  his  first  report  to  the  Fourth 
Avenue  Church  after  five  months  of  service 
.mentioned  five  hundred  pastoral  calls;  two 
sermons,  Sunday-school  and  prayer  meeting 
on  Sundays;  week  day  evening  meetings;  cot- 
tage prayer  meetings;  the  Penny  Bank  with 
over  four  hundred  depositors  averaging 
$i.oo  each;  administration  of  the  Deacon's 
Fund;  collection  and  distributing  of  clothing 
and  furniture;  "Blind  Jennie's"  classes  of 
children;  sewing  school;  fresh-air  work  for 
the  children;  building  up  the  music  fund; 
Christian  Endeavor  Society,  and  efforts  to 
bring  the  chapel  to  self-support.  That  was 
just  a  beginning.  I  shall  speak  only  of  some 
of  the  more  remarkable  things  incident  to  his 
pastorate. 

In  the  terrible  winter  of  1893-4  when  the 
out-of-works  were  innumerable  and  the  suf- 
fering intense,  Mr.  Devins  threw  himself 
and  was  thrown  into  the  work  of  relief.  He 
suggested  to  the  New  York  Presbytery  that 
a   committee   be   appointed  to   secure   funds 


HOPE  CHAPEL  65 

sufficient  to  enable  the  Presbyterian  churches 
of  the  city  to  take  entire  charge  of  their  own 
poor  and  to  give  as  much  as  possible  to  the 
rest  of  the  city's  poor.  His  final  report  as 
secretary  of  that  committee  said  that  every 
call  for  aid  from  every  church  and  mission 
had  been  met;  and  that  no  Presbyterian  had 
appealed  for  aid  to  any  charitable  organiza- 
tion. 

The  mayor,  who  had  great  confidence  In 
Mr.  Devins,  appointed  him  to  administer  the 
"  Mayor's  Fund  "  for  his  portion  of  the  city. 
During  seventeen  weeks,  7,000  men  applied 
for  work  at  the  chapel  and  more  than 
$40,000  was  disbursed  to  them.  None  of  it 
was  given.  They  earned  it.  Nobody  was 
pauperized.  Five  hundred  different  men 
were  employed  at  street  sweeping,  about  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  each  day,  leaving  their 
brooms  in  the  chapel  yard  at  night.  Two 
hundred  women  a  week  cut  out  garments  in 
a  room  of  the  chapel.  Many  men  were  em- 
ployed in  sanitation  work  in  the  tenements, 
kalsomining  and  whitewashing  seven  hundred 
houses,  including  three  thousand  rooms,  eight 
hundred  halls,  five  hundred  and  fifty  cellars 
and  two  hundred  and  fifty  stables,  lofts, 
areas,  et  cetera,  and  cleansing  and  scrubbing 
six  hundred  and  fifty  houses,  twenty-five  hun- 
dred halls,  twenty-two  hundred  rooms.      But 


66      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  filthy  cellars,  yards  and  areas  had  to  be 
cleaned  out.  From  those  cellars  were  re- 
moved more  than  four  thousand  barrels  of 
refuse,  one  hundred  of  old  bones,  fifty-seven 
of  leather  shoes,  et  cetera,  forty-four  of  wet 
straw,  forty-one  of  excelsior,  fifty-seven  of 
old  tin  and  iron,  eighteen  of  broken  glass,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  ashes,  and  great  quan- 
tities of  dead  animals,  decomposed  rags,  gar- 
bage, sauerkraut,  meat  and  milk,  mattresses, 
bedding,  et  cetera.  Mr.  Devins  employed  In 
this  work  only  heads  of  families.  Each  one 
had  his  dollar  at  night.  Two  of  the  chapel 
people  acted  as  captains  under  Mr.  Devins' 
generalship  and  a  few  of  the  laborers  were 
made  lieutenants  at  $1.25  a  day.  So  shrewd 
was  Mr.  Devins'  choice  of  lieutenants  that  In 
handling  $40,000  only  $2.50  was  unac- 
counted for,  and  one  of  the  lieutenants  came 
a  few  weeks  later  to  return  that  money  say- 
ing that  he  had  stolen  It  but  was  sorry. 

Now  the  men  who  did  the  work  were  not 
street  sweepers  and  garbage  men.  They 
were  clerks  and  merchants  who  had  received 
good  salaries,  but  from  whom  the  hard  times 
had  taken  their  occupation,  their  little  bank 
savings,  and  one  by  one  their  articles  of  furni- 
ture and  clothing  until  they  could  not  provide 
food  for  their  families.  I  was  visiting  Mr. 
Devins  at  the  time  and  every  morning  before 


HOPE  CHAPEL  67 

light  I  saw  the  brooms,  shovels,  pails,  mops, 
distributed  to  the  hundreds  of  men  in  the 
streets.  Hardly  a  man  had  an  overcoat  or 
rubbers,  few  had  gloves,  evidently  most  of 
them  had  no  underclothing,  and  the  cold  wind 
with  a  mercury  far  below  freezing  was.  very 
bitter.  They  were  not  used  to  such  work 
and  their  muscles  and  hands  were  tender. 
There  was  often  blood  on  their  broom 
handles  when  they  brought  them  back  at 
night.  Those  men  might  all  have  secured 
free  coal  and  food  from  The  Tribune, 
free  clothing  from  The  Herald,  and  free 
bread  from  The  IVorld  or  from  the  city 
authorities;  but  they  were  not  paupers  and 
they  preferred  to  do  that  dreadful  work 
rather  than  to  receive  charity.  Their  man- 
hood was  maintained,  their  self-respect  not 
lowered. 

That  was  Mr.  Devins'  idea  of  helping  peo- 
ple —  helping  them  to  help  themselves  when- 
ever that  was  possible,  but  giving  freely  when 
necessity  required.  The  following  spring  he 
organized  the  New  York  Employment  So- 
ciety. He  had  watched,  as  we  all  had,  the 
failure  of  the  free  employment  bureaus  to 
accomplish  the  end  desired,  so  he  organized 
this  on  a  new  principle:  everyone  who  ap- 
plied for  work  was  listed  and  asked  for  ref- 
erences,  giving  his  work   and  his  character 


68       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

during  recent  years.  All  references  were  in- 
terviewed or  corresponded  with.  Only  men 
whose  record  for  both  good  work  and  trust- 
worthy character  was  satisfactory  were  rec- 
ommended to  employers.  Seventy-five  hun- 
dred men  applied  for  work  at  the  office  of 
the  Society  during  the  first  year.  Many  of 
them  refused  to  give  references  and  hotly 
cursed  a  bureau  that  would  not  find  them 
work  without  Investigating  them.  They 
were  ready  to  pay  a  fee  but  not  to  have  their 
records  known.  No  fees  were  asked  of  any- 
one. Mr.  Devlns  would  not  ask  anyone  to 
finance  this  novel  employment  bureau  until  it 
had  proved  Its  value;  he  carried  it  for  a  year 
at  an  expense  of  about  two  thousand  dollars 
out  of  his  own  pocket. 

Was  It  successful?  Mr.  Devlns  saw  em- 
ployers, securing  the  custom  of  many.  For 
Instance,  Mr.  Wanamaker,  when  opening  his 
New  York  store,  took  men  from  the  bureau 
as  far  as  possible,  as  did  many  others.  The 
son-in-law  of  Peter  Cooper,  Mr.  Edward  R. 
Hewitt,  who  was  managing  Cooper  Union, 
had  been  for  years  looking  for  a  practicable 
free  labor  bureau  idea.  He  watched  this 
one  a  year  and  then  Cooper  Union  took  it 
over,  making  Mr.  Devlns  a  director  of  the 
Union  and  Chairman  of  its  Committee  on 
Free  Employment  Bureau.     This  position  he 


HOPE  CHAPEL  69 

held  many  years  until  improved  business  con- 
ditions and  advance  by  other  charitable  agen- 
cies rendered  the  work  of  the  bureau  no 
longer  necessary. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    HUNGARIAN  WIDOW 

While  Irma  Szedmaky  was  a  school  girl 
in  Hungary  she  fell  in  love  with  Gustav 
Szabo  Erdelyi,  a  young  and  handsome  fellow 
whom  all  the  girls  in  the  town  were  after. 
Within  a  week  of  their  second  meeting  they 
were  engaged.  But  she  was  too  good  for 
such  a  mesalliance;  her  family  was  noble  and 
wealthy, —  one  uncle  a  bishop,  another  the 
first  Minister- President  of  Hungary;  she 
must  marry  a  young  Count  famous  in  the 
Revolution,  and  he  was  more  than  willing. 
She  would  not  marry  where  she  did  not  love. 
So  she  was  immured  in  a  convent  whose  ab- 
bess was  a  relative.  One  day  a  young  en- 
gineer smiled  at  her  and  she  returned  the 
smile.  They  corresponded  clandestinely. 
She  escaped  from  the  convent  and  married 
him.  He  died  after  fifteen  years.  Mean- 
time Erdelyi  married  happily,  but  lost  his 
property  and  his  wife  and  came  to  New  York 
where,  after  working  two  years  as  a  laborer 
and  then  in  the  office  of  a  Hungarian  news- 
paper, the  Amerikai  Nemzetor,  he  became 
its    editor    and   proprietor.     When    the    en- 

70 


THE  HUNGARIAN  WIDOW      71 

gineer  died,  Erdelyi  began  correspondence 
with  his  former  sweetheart  who  came  to  New 
York  in  1894  and  married  him.  Erdelyi's 
health  failed  and  he  died  after  six  months. 
Meantime  Mrs.  Erdelyi  had  first  helped  him 
to  run  the  paper,  then  took  entire  charge, 
having  a  considerable  staff  under  her. 

Erdelyi  had  been  widely  known  and  loved 
among  Hungarians,  and  his  funeral  near 
Hope  Chapel  was  a  wonder.  There  were 
several  Hungarian  bands  from  New  York 
and  other  states,  and  a  concourse  of  thou- 
sands of  his  countrymen  and  countrywomen. 
The  hour  named  for  the  service  passed,  but 
no  priest  appeared.  Mrs.  Erdelyi  asked  her 
husband's  closest  friend  and  lawyer,  a  Hun- 
garian Hebrew,  to  go  for  the  belated  priest. 
The  priest  was  away  from  home..  Several 
were  visited,  the  last  of  whom  said  that  the 
Archbishop,  because  Erdelyi  had  been  too 
liberal-minded,  had  forbidden  any  priest  to 
officiate.  "  Get  me  a  Protestant  minister," 
said  the  widow.  "Whom  shall  I  get?" 
asked  the  lawyer.  "  I  know  none;  get  any- 
one," Mrs.  Erdelyi  replied.  The  lawyer 
knew  Mr.  Devins  and  got  him.  He  con- 
ducted a  sympathetic  service,  interpreted  by 
the  lawyer;  for  although  Mrs.  Erdelyi  could 
speak  five  languages,  English  was  not  one  of 
them.     The    service    concluded,    the    widow 


72       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

asked  that  the  casket  be  opened.  Then  she 
took  the  crucifix  from  the  dead  hands  of  her 
husband  and  threw  it  on  the  floor.  "  I  re- 
nounce the  church  that  would  not  bury  my 
dear  husband,"  she  said;  and  to  Mr.  Devins, 
"What  is  your  church?"  "The  Presbyte- 
rian," he  said.  "  What  does  '  Presbyterian  ' 
mean?"  she  asked.  "Governed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  the  members,  chosen  by  them." 
"I  like  that.  What  are  its  doctrines?" 
"  The  doctrines  of  John  Huss,"  said  Mr. 
Devins  —  just  the  perfect  words  to  say  to 
her.  "  I  like  that,"  she  said.  "  Can  I  join 
your  church?"  An  appointment  was  made 
for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  to  call  on  her  the 
next  day,  the  lawyer  to  be  present  to  inter- 
pret. After  the  brief  service  at  the  ceme- 
tery she  again  asked  that  the  casket  be 
opened,  knowing  that  the  Catholic  under- 
taker had  replaced  the  crucifix  in  it  and  again 
she  took  it  out,  broke  it,  threw  it  down  and 
trampled  on  it,  saying,  "  I  knew  what  I  was 
doing  at  the  house.  I  mean  it.  I  renounce 
the  Catholic  Church!  " 

Mrs.  Erdelyi  appeared  with  an  interpreter 
before  the  Chapel  session.  They  were  con- 
servative men  and  Mr.  Devins  felt  a  little 
afraid.  The  examination  began:  "  Madam, 
are  you  a  Christian?"  She  smiled.  "Oh, 
yes,  I  feel  that  every  person  with  sense  must 


THE  HUNGARIAN  WIDOW      73 

love  Jesus  Christ."    "  Do  you  pray?  "     "  Oh, 
yes,     I     could     not    live     without     prayer." 
"  How  often?  "      "  Morning  and  night  and 
many,  many  times  a  day  I  pray  little  prayers." 
"  To  whom  do  you  pray?  "      "  Why,  to  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
the  saints."      "  Just  so,  but  to  whom  do  you 
like   best   to   pray?  "      "  That   seems    a    sin- 
gular question,"  she  said.      "  Of  course  I  pray 
to  the  Virgin  and  the  saints  because  I  was 
taught  to;  but  when  I  pray  to  God  and  Jesus 
Christ  I  feel  here" — she  laid  her  hand  on 
her    heart — "that    they    answer    me.     Of 
course  I  like  that  best.     Is  it  not  so  with  you 
too,   gentlemen?"     By  this  time  the  elders 
were   greatly  moved  and  she  was   duly   re- 
ceived.    She  desired  to  make  a  public,  and 
thoroughly  public,   confession.      Mr.   Devins 
prepared  a  four-page  program,  pages  eight 
by  eleven   inches;   first  page:   "Welcome  — 
Wilkommen  —  Isten  Hozta  ;  "   a   picture  of 
the  chapel,  the  date,  etc.     Second  page:  pro- 
gram,   including  the  most  informing  gospel 
passages,  four  hymns,  other  music,  reception, 
addresses,    etc.,    all   repeated  in   German   on 
the    third   page    and   in   Hungarian   on    the 
fourth.     She  became   a   faithful   and   happy 
member  of  the  Chapel. 

Immediately   began    a   bitter   persecution, 
taking  many   forms.     Threatening   and   ob- 


74       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

scene  postal  cards  were  sent  her  in  great 
numbers,  scandalous  stories  about  her  were 
put  In  circulation  wherever  In  America  Hun- 
garians could  be  found,  and  In  Hungary. 
The  Hungarian  government  was  Induced  to 
put  an  Interdict  on  her  paper.  When  she 
went  out  of  town  to  secure  subscriptions, 
trumped-up  suits  were  brought  against  her 
before  Catholic  justices  and  she  was  mulcted 
in  considerable  sums,  so  that  presently  her 
funds  were  depleted;  and  several  times  her 
life  was  attempted,  once  by  a  brick  flung 
through  her  office  window  at  night,  seriously 
injuring  her  forehead,  once  with  a  knife  that 
cut  her  severely.  She  bore  herself  sweetly 
and  bravely.  After  she  attended  a  com- 
munion at  the  Chapel  the  persecution  broke 
out  with  renewed  violence.  Mr.  Devlns 
bought  the  Amerikai  Nemzetor  plant  of  her 
for  a  dollar;  and  when  In  her  next  absence 
from  the  city  suit  was  brought  against  her,  he 
attended  to  it  and  she  lost  no  more  money  In 
that  way.  Then  a  Hungarian  priest  came  to 
her  home  and  told  her  that  the  mother 
church  was  willing  to  forget  the  past  and  to 
receive  her  again,  and  all  persecution  would 
cease.  She  Indignantly  refused  to  return 
to  the  Catholic  Church.  The  priest  then 
cursed,  raved,  stormed,  threatened;  said  that 
If  she  did  not  return  they  would  destroy  her 


THE  HUNGARIAN  WIDOW      75 

good  name,  her  property  and  her  life.  She 
hurried  to  Mr.  Devins  and  told  him.  "  Did 
anyone  hear  the  priest?  "  "  Yes,  my  servant 
heard  it  all."  "  Very  well,"  said  he,  "  I  will 
stop  the  persecution."  He  went  to  the 
mayor  and  secured  his  backing  if  that  should 
be  necessary;  then  to  the  police  inspector  in 
his  district.  He  told  the  story  and  said, 
"  Please  tell  that  priest  to  stop  all  persecu- 
tion at  once."  "  Why,  Mr.  Devins,  I  should 
like  to  oblige  you,  but  I  am  a  parishioner  of 
that  priest;  how  can  I  say  such  a  thing  to 
him?"  "Very  well,"  said  Dr.  Devins, 
"  all  he  said  was  heard  by  a  witness.  He 
made  himself  responsible  for  the  persecution. 
I  shall  put  him  in  state's  prison  and  the  mayor 
says  he  will  back  me."  The  inspector  saw 
light  and  went  to  the  priest  and  the  persecu- 
tion ceased  at  once. 


CHAPTER  XII 

HUNGARY 

Mr.  Devins  tried  to  secure  a  Hungarian 
Protestant  minister  for  the  service  at  which 
Mrs.  Erdelyi  was  to  confess  Christ.  None 
could  be  had.  Two  in  western  Pennsylvania 
were  too  distant.  Of  forty  thousand  Hun- 
garians in  New  York  City,  five  thousand 
were  Protestants  and  had  neither  church  nor 
minister.  The  few  Protestant  Hungarian 
ministers  in  America  belonged  to  other  de- 
nominations and  were  engaged  in  other 
states.  On  a  showing  of  these  facts,  the 
Presbytery  of  New  York  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  act  with  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions in  providing  for  Hungarian  services, 
accepting  an  offer  of  Hope  Chapel  for  the 
purpose.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  decided  to 
take  for  their  summer  vacation  a  trip  to  Hun- 
gary to  accomplish  three  ends  beside  the 
recreative  one :  To  find  a  minister  for  the 
Hungarian  work  at  the  Chapel,  and  to  ar- 
range for  future  similar  supplies  as  the  work 
might  extend;  to  get  the  interdict  against 
Mrs.  Erdelyi's  paper  removed;  and  to  try 
to    reconcile    Mrs.    Erdelyi's    relatives    and 

76 


HUNGARY  77 

friends  to  her  Protestant  church  membership. 
The  three  ends  were  gained  with  some  inter- 
esting concomitants. 

The  Hungarian  Hebrew  lawyer  who  had 
been  Mr.  Erdelyi's  attorney  and  close  friend 
and  held  the  same  relations  to  Mrs.  Erdelyi, 
came  to  Mr.  Devins  to  ask  a  singular  favor: 
"  Mr.  Devins,  will  you  get  a  chicken 
slaughter  house  for  us?  You  can  do  it  and 
nobody  else  can."  He  said  that  every  Jew 
was  obliged  by  his  religion  to  use  chicken 
once  a  week  as  part  of  a  meal,  and  it  must 
be  "  Kosher,"  killed  by  a  priest  according  to 
the  ritual.  But  it  was  illegal  in  New  York 
to  kill  a  chicken  excepting  at  an  authorized 
slaughter  house.  The  only  one  was  far 
down  town,  and  was  practically  inaccessible 
for  the  poor  Jews  who  could  afford  neither 
car-fares  nor  hours  to  go  there  every  week. 
The  statutes  forbade  killing  a  fowl  in  a  tene- 
ment, or  even  carrying  a  live  fowl  into  a 
tenement;  yet  so  great  was  the  faithfulness  of 
the  poor  people  to  their  religious  require- 
ments that  many  simply  had  to  smuggle  live 
fowls  into  their  tenements,  where  the  priests, 
risking  fine  and  imprisonment,  killed  them  in 
Kosher  manner.  Now  the  Hebrews  had 
long  before  bought  a  suitable  piece  of  ground 
not  far  from  Hope  Chapel,  had  money  in 
bank  to  build  the  slaughter  house,  had  plans 


78       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

complying  with  all  civic  requirements,  and 
had  often  begged  the  Common  Council  to 
grant  permission  to  build.  They  could  get 
no  action,  could  not  get  the  Council  inter- 
ested. "  Mr.  Devins,  you  are  the  one  man 
who  can  put  this  thing  through  for  us. 
Will  you  do  it?  "  He  would  try;  and  he 
succeeded  and  soon  the  slaughter  house  was 
built. 

When  it  became  known  that  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Devins  were  going  to  Hungary  on  their  er- 
rands of  good  will,  the  lawyer,  and  hosts  of 
other  Hungarians  and  Jews,  gave  them  let- 
ters of  introduction  to  influential  Europeans 
and  showed  them  a  hundred  kindnesses.  It 
was  Mr.  Devins'  first  trip  to  Europe,  but  I 
could  never  get  him  to  discuss  the  trip  ex- 
cepting as  it  affected  his  special  purposes. 
At  Budapest  he  established  Mrs.  Devins 
at  a  hotel  and  called  immediately  at  the  of- 
fice of  the  Secretary  of  State,  or  whatever 
he  is  called  there.  The  Secretary  was  out  of 
the  city,  and  Mr.  Devins  sent  in  his  card  to 
the  next  In  authority.  A  cold  and  haughty 
gentleman  appeared  to  ask  his  wishes.  Mr. 
Devins  presented  a  letter  of  Introduction  and 
said  that  he  wished  to  get  the  interdict  re- 
moved from  the  Amerikai  Nemzetor. 
"How  long  would  he  be  In  Budapest?" 
"  A  day  or  two."      "  Oh,  nothing  could  be 


HUNGARY  79 

done.  It  would  take  weeks,  perhaps  months, 
and  probably  it  could  not  be  accomplished  at 
all."  Then  the  gentleman  looked  at  Mr. 
Devins'  card  more  attentively,  lifted  an 
amazed  face,  put  out  a  glad  hand  and  cried, 
"  Are  you  the  man  that  had  the  funeral?  I 
am  proud  to  shake  hands  with  the  man  who 
was  brave  enough  to  conduct  that  funeral 
when  all  others  refused."  He  overflowed 
with  enthusiastic  cordiality.  He  was  a 
Catholic,  he  said,  but  not  that  kind  of  a 
Catholic  who  did  not  admire  the  Erdelyis 
and  Mr.  Devins.  He  would  see  what  could 
be  done  about  the  interdict.  He  regretted 
that  the  absence  of  his  wife  from  the  city 
forbade  his  asking  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  to 
be  his  guests.  "  Please  dine  with  us  at  our 
hotel  to-night,"  Mr.  Devins  said.  He  ac- 
cepted instantly,  again  with  enthusiasm. 
Long  before  dinner  hour  he  rushed  in  upon 
them  holding  his  hat  high  in  air,  almost  danc- 
ing with  excitement,  happy  as  a  boy,  waving 
an  official  document  and  crying  out,  "  I  have 
it!  T  have  it!  "  He  had  secured  the  removal 
of  the  interdict.  The  efforts  to  secure  a 
Hungarian  Protestant  minister  and  to  recon- 
cile Mrs.  Erdelyi's  friends  to  her  attitude 
were  equally  successful. 

Not  long  after  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  re- 
turned from  Hungary  I  read  one  morning  in 


8o      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

my  Chicago  paper  a  three-quarter  column 
Associated  Press  dispatch  from  New  York, 
stating  that  the  people  of  the  East  Side  had 
presented  to  the  mayor  a  monster  petition, 
signed  by  many  thousands  of  every  race  and 
religion  and  of  no  religion,  begging  him  to 
appoint  Mr.  Devins  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  Education  about  to  be  formed  under  the 
new  city  charter.  The  mayor,  said  the  dis- 
patch, replied  that  he  knew  Mr.  Devins  very 
well  and  esteemed  him  as  highly  as  any  man 
he  knew,  but  he  would  never  put  a  clergyman 
on  the  Board  of  Education,  for  all  clergymen 
were  cranks  in  such  positions.  However, 
such  was  his  absolute  confidence  in  Mr.  Dev- 
ins, that  if  he  would  name  to  the  mayor  a 
suitable  man  on  the  East  Side  for  the  posi- 
tion, that  man  should  be  appointed.  Mr. 
Devins'  first  knowledge  of  the  whole  matter 
came  to  him  as  he  read  his  morning  Tri- 
bune at  breakfast  that  day.  He  went  at 
once  to  the  mayor's  office,  laid  The  Tri- 
bune before  him  and  asked  if  the  article 
were  entirely  correct.  The  mayor  said  that 
It  was.  "  Then,"  said  Mr.  Devins,  laying  a 
slip  of  paper  before  the  mayor,  "  here  Is  the 
man  who  should  be  appointed."  "  I  do  now 
appoint  him,"  said  the  mayor. 


i 


CHAPTER  XIII 

FEDERATION 

"  There  is  no  better  authority  on  work  on 
the  East  Side  of  New  York  than  the 
Rev.  John  B.  Devins,  the  tireless  pastor  of 
Hope  Chapel,"  said  an  editorial  in  The 
Outlook  of  January  23,  1897.  "Mr. 
Devins  is  more  than  simply  a  mission  worker; 
he  is  an  intelligent  and  earnest  student  of  the 
life  of  the  East  Side,  and  has  done  as  much 
if  not  more  than  anyone  else  to  perfect  The 
Federation  of  East  Side  Workers,"  and  it 
gives  a  long  account  of  the  organization. 

In  all  his  work  for  the  people  of  his  par- 
ish, and  especially  in  the  sorrowful  times  of 
the  winter  of  1893-4  when  Mr.  Devins  was 
giving  about  seventeen  hours  a  day  to  relief 
work  alone  in  addition  to  his  ordinary  Chapel 
duties,  he  felt  increasingly  the  need  of  some 
cooperative  organized  work  in  behalf  of  the 
poor,  and  especially  of  organized  coopera- 
tive effort  to  prevent  poverty  by  giving  infor- 
mation to  the  ignorant  and  timely  aid  to  self- 
help  for  those  who  were  tending  to  poverty 
but  might  be  saved  to  self-support.  It  is 
probable  that  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 

81 


82      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

future  historian  of  social  movements  in  New 
York  City  the  organization  and  development 
of  The  Federation  of  East  Side  Workers  will 
be  regarded  as  Mr.  Devins'  most  original, 
distinguished,  statesmanlike  and  fruitful  work 
in  the  world.  It  was  original  in  conception, 
boldly  innovating  in  theory,  requiring  almost 
superhuman  courage  to  attempt  it  and  long, 
patient,  tactful,  undiscouraged  labor,  with  un- 
surpassed diplomacy  in  handling  the  antago- 
nistic elements  whose  fusion  was  essential  for 
its  success.  In  Mr.  Devins'  words  :  "  It  is  not 
an  effort  to  bring  about  church  union,  though 
Protestants,  Romanists  and  Hebrews  coop- 
perate.  It  is  not  an  organization  to  give  one 
benevolent  society  an  advantage  over  an- 
other. It  is  not  a  relief-giving  society.  It 
is  not  a  rival  of  any  existing  agencies.  It  is 
an  honest  effort  on  the  part  of  those  living 
or  working  in  the  district  to  cooperate  along 
lines  upon  which  there  is  a  general  agree- 
ment. It  is  an  earnest  effort  to  bring  into 
active  cooperation  all  of  the  pastors,  regard- 
less of  creed,  and  representatives  of  all  chari- 
table societies,  whatever  their  object." 

And  he  succeeded  in  making  that  vision, 
that  dream,  that  apparently  impossible  Uto- 
pian project  a  success  at  the  start  and  year 
after  year!  No  one  else  could  have  done  it. 
He  had  been  In  Hope  Chapel  only  six  or 


FEDERATION  83 

seven  years;  he  was  very  young;  he  had  no 
previous  experience  in  such  work;  there  was 
nowhere  in  the  world  a  model  for  him  to  imi- 
tate. How  dared  he  try  to  weld  official 
representatives  of  all  churches  and  syna- 
gogues below  Fourteenth  Street,  between 
Broadway  and  the  East  River,  and  of  all 
charitable  organizations  there  of  every  sort, 
into  a  compact,  cooperating,  friendly,  ef- 
ficient organization?  It  was  a  stupendous 
dream  —  and  the  realization  actually  fell 
nothing  short  of  the  vision.  He  dreamed 
practically.  Every  line  in  his  dream-plans 
was  drawn  only  when  he  was  certain  that  it 
was  practicable.  When  the  vision  was  com- 
plete as  a  pictured  ideal,  each  item  as  care- 
fully and  scientifically  worked  out  as  the  lines 
and  figures  in  an  architect's  blue-print,  he 
went  to  work  to  realize  it  in  practice.  Dog- 
gedly, persistently,  without  haste  and  without 
rest,  he  worked,  adding  to  all  his  other  du- 
ties and  ventures  this  amazing  dream.  A 
thousand  partial  failures  never  troubled  him 
more  than  a  few  minutes;  "Up  and  at 
them  "  was  his  working  motto.  He  felt  his 
hand  in  God's.  It  was  not  his  work  at  all; 
it  was  God's  work,  and  it  was  God's  work  for 
the  countless  needy  children  around  him. 
Few  believed  that  he  could  succeed.  It 
seemed  chimerical  —  but  not  to  him.     And 


84       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

he  did  it.  Try  to  visualize  what  he  did. 
Think  of  his  actually  overcoming  all  ob- 
stacles, surmounting  all  prejudices,  arguing 
away  all  objections  made  by  practically  every- 
body he  approached.  Get  Protestants, 
Romanists,  Hebrews,  charitable  societies  of 
every  name  and  sort,  lodges,  clubs,  anarch- 
ists, everybody,  to  work  in  official  coopera- 
tion!      Believe  it  possible  who  could! 

Upon  what  did  he  rely  for  success?  Not 
upon  miraculous  divine  aid;  not  —  modest 
man  that  he  was  —  on  his  own  powers;  but 
he  reckoned  upon  that  human  sense  and  sym- 
pathy with  need  which  he  believed  to  be  in 
everyone  engaged  in  East  Side  helpful  work, 
ready  to  respond  to  a  reasonable  stimulus. 
He  showed  them  all  —  parsons,  priests,  rab- 
bis, philanthropists,  and  just  simple  human 
helpers  of  others  —  that  it  could  be  done  and 
would  pay  for  the  doing;  and  they  did  it. 
Thus  for  the  first  time  in  human  history  such 
cooperative  effort  on  a  noble  scale  was  organ- 
ized, successful,  practical.  It  taught  the 
world  a  needed  lesson  which  it  is  slowly 
learning.  When  the  Lower  East  Side,  hav- 
ing one-tenth  of  the  city's  area  and  at  that 
time  one-fourth  of  its  population,  a  half-mil- 
lion souls,  learned  by  doing  it,  that  coopera- 
tion in  charitable  and  preventive  work  was 
practicable,    delightful,    efficient,    the    world 


FEDERATION  85 

waked  up.  The  Outlook  article  quoted  at 
the  beginning  of  this  paper  concluded  with 
these  words:  "  The  Federation  of  East  Side 
Workers  ought  to  be  extended  to  take  in  the 
whole  city,  or  rather  there  should  be  other 
federations  which  should  cooperate  and  so 
cover  the  whole  city.  Organizations  cannot 
do  everything  but  proper  organization  in- 
creases power." 

The  details  of  the  organization  and  its 
methods  of  work  cannot  be  adequately  sug- 
gested here,  or  the  practical  results  of  it  for 
the  East  Side.  But  two  practical  results  of 
far-reaching  Importance  must  be  noted. 
First  came  the  larger  federation  of  Christian 
forces  in  New  York  City  which  has  now  these 
many  years  produced  incomparable  fruitage; 
then  came  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  the  coopera- 
tive work  of  thirty-three  of  the  leading  de- 
nominations of  the  country.  Not  only  did 
Dr.  Devins  have  important  and  distinguished 
offices  in  connection  with  the  Inter-Church 
Conference  on  Federation  in  1905  which  re- 
sulted In  the  organization  of  the  Federal 
Council,  and  equally  responsible  and  taxing 
positions  under  the  Council  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death,  but  three  of  the  leading  speakers 
on  the  platform  of  the  Inter-Church  Confer- 
ence ascribed  to  Dr.  Devins  the  high  honor 


86      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

and  distinguished  merit  of  having  done  the 
pioneer  work  which  both  blazed  the  trail 
and  cleared  the  path  into  the  heart  of  the 
wilderness  of  denominational  rivalry,  inter- 
ference, confusion  and  hindrance  in  Chris- 
tian work,  and  thus  prepared  for  the  glorious 
Federation  which  now  puts  heart  and  hope 
into  everyone  who  longs  for  the  doing  of 
our  Father's  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven.  This  notable  service  of  Dr.  Devins 
to  the  kingdom  of  God  is  fully  recognized  in 
the  tribute  to  his  memory,  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  at  a  meeting  held  on  November  8, 
191 1,  and  placed  upon  its  minutes. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PERSONAL  WORK 

"Who  are  you?"  said  Mayor  Gaynor  a 
few  months  ago  addressing,  by  invitation, 
the  Congregational  clergymen  of  New  York 
City.  "Who  are  you?  How  far  does 
your  influence  extend?  Do  you  reach  out 
among  the  people?  Who  are  you?  Do  you 
reach  out  among  the  unfortunate  and  the 
lowly  and  those  that  want  to  be  lifted  up? 
Who  are  you?  Does  the  great  heart  of 
Jesus  throb  in  you  —  the  One  who  took  all 
the  lowly  by  the  hand  and  said,  '  Come  unto 
Me  and  I  will  help  you  '  ?  "  When  I  read 
those  fine  words  I  answered  at  once :  John 
Bancroft  Devins  !  How  inevitably,  when  we 
read  of  this  minister's  eloquent  sermons,  of 
that  one's  growing  congregations  and  budg- 
ets, and  of  the  other  one's  new  church  edi- 
fice, we  feel  that  all  these  may  possibly  mean 
chiefly  ability  and  ambition;  and  we  want  to 
ask,  if  we  do  not  know  him  personally,  "  Who 
are  you?  What  is  your  heart?  Do 
you  reach  out,  and  down?  How  far  does 
your  influence  reach  downward?  The  heart 
of  Jesus  —  is  it  yours?  " 

87 


88       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Mr.  Devlns'  habit  of  personal  work  began 
when  he  was  a  boy  and  lasted  through  life. 
While  a  student  in  the  university  he  saw  in 
the  Grand  Central  Station,  a  man  evidently 
much  distressed,  and  asked  if  he  could  be  of 
assistance  to  him;  his  habit  of  offering  help, 
not  waiting  to  be  asked,  was  a  notable  char- 
acteristic. The  man  had  just  landed  from 
Europe,  planning  to  settle  in  the  West,  bring- 
ing his  gun  and  dogs  with  him.  Unexpected 
revenue  duties  collected  on  these,  and  other 
unexpected  expenses,  had  consumed  the 
money  he  had  intended  to  use  for  travel 
westward,  and  he  was  stranded,  friendless. 
Mr.  Devins  gave  him  what  he  had  with  him, 
enough  to  take  him  to  his  destination.  Some 
years  later  came  a  happy  letter  from  the  man, 
enclosing  the  loan  and  heavy  interest  and 
expressions  of  gratitude. 

He  was  always  eager  for  personal  touch 
with  the  particularly  needy.  His  heart 
ached  for  each  one,  opened  wide  to  each  one; 
his  time,  money,  love,  prayers,  sympathy, 
help  of  every  imaginable  sort  belonged  to 
each  one.  It  never  occurred  to  him  to  ask 
if  people  were  "  worthy,"  "  deserving,"  any 
more  than  Christ  asks  that  about  us;  the  only 
question  was,  "  Can  I  be  of  use  to  them?  " 
Literally  hundreds  of  illustrative  incidents 
occur  to  me,  from  which  I  select  typical  ones. 


PERSONAL  WORK  89 

There  was  nothing  formal,  perfunctory,  pro- 
fessional, about  his  Hope  Chapel  work;  it 
was  every  bit  personal  work. 

The  sky-apartments  over  the  Chapel  were 
consecrated  to  personal  work.  His  idea  of 
a  home,  which  never  changed,  was  written  to 
Mrs.  Devins  some  years  later:  "While  we 
cannot  make  a  home  for  the  Master  in  vis- 
ible form  as  the  Bethany  sisters  did,  let  us 
see  to  it  that  we  shall  here  display  that  spirit 
which  will  make  Him  the  unseen  guest  with 
those  whom  in  His  name  we  shall  receive 
here."  We  used  to  feel  sorry  for  Mrs. 
Devins  when,  so  often,  the  domestics  were 
apparently  selected  because  they  needed 
friendly  help  rather  than  for  help  they  were 
competent  to  render;  but  Mrs.  Devins  did 
not  seem  sorry  for  herself.  Delicate  in 
health,  often  suffering,  apparently  with  little 
strength,  she  devoted  herself  absolutely;  and 
she  accomplished  wonders  to  make  most 
healthy  Christian  women  feel  very  small. 
She  was  the  helpmeet  for  him.  The  boys' 
club,  aimed  to  keep  "the  gang"  off  the 
streets  evenings,  had  a  room  in  the  Chapel 
with  books,  games,  entertainments;  but  the 
toughest  ones — "  Pepper  "  and  "  Lemons  " 
and  "  Buttons  "  and  "  Job  Lots  "  and  so  on 
—  were  turned  over  to  Mrs.  Devins  to  be 
entertained   in   her   parlor  with   games    and 


90      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  like,  and  special  ones  were  permitted  to 
sit  by  her  at  prayer  meetings.  Mr.  Devins' 
influence  with  them  was  great.  For  years 
afterward,  when  one  of  them  got  into  trouble, 
"  the  gang  "  would  come  for  Mr.  Devins  and 
he  would  appear  in  court,  become  sponsor  for 
good  behavior,  pay  fines,  get  them  reinstated 
in  their  own  respect. 

Every  child  in  Sunday-school  had  its  turn 
at  good  times  in  that  parlor.  A  few  classes 
at  a  time  were  given  a  happy  evening  with 
games,  refreshments,  friendship;  and  for 
years  afterwards  those  "  parties  "  were 
heard  of  reminiscently  and  gratefully.  A 
Bible  class  of  twenty  or  thirty  old  ladies  had 
their  annual  parties  in  the  parlor,  and  every 
summer  Mr.  Devins  took  them  —  where  do 
you  suppose?  to  Coney  Island!  I  remember 
vividly  the  first  time  he  gave  those  dear  eld- 
erly women  the  time  of  their  lives.  They 
saw  everything,  and  rode  seraphically  on  the 
merry-go-round,  and  played  in  the  sand,  and 
had  delicious  ice  cream  and  lemonade  with 
their  lunches,  and  got  home  crying  with 
weariness  and  perfect  bliss.  Who  but  one 
who  had  loved  himself  clear  into  their  worn 
old  hearts  could  have  imagined  the  one  per- 
fect outing  for  them?  He  gave  the  choir 
treats;  took  them  to  an  oratorio,  "  The  Mes- 
siah," at  Carnegie  Hall,  and  the  like. 


PERSONAL  WORK  91 

He  guarded  his  flock  as  the  Good  Shep- 
herd does  His.  When  he  took  the  trip  in 
1895  to  England,  France,  Hungary,  he  en- 
tered a  protest,  before  going,  against  any 
saloon  license  being  granted  in  his  district 
until  he  should  return.  When  he  got  home 
there  were  a  lot  waiting  to  open  up.  He  ob- 
jected and  backed  up  the  objection  with  un- 
answerable arguments,  and  no  licenses  were 
granted.  Day  after  day  the  would-be 
saloon  keepers  came  to  beg  him  to  let  them 
have  licenses.  He  would  talk  long  and 
friendly  with  them  and  go  with  them  to  the 
authorities  with  his  map,  and  show  the  num- 
ber and  locations  of  too  many  saloons  already 
in  the  district.  Of  course  his  life  was 
threatened.  That  did  not  trouble  him.  His 
friends  begged  him  not  to  go  out  nights  alone 
or  without  a  heavy  cane;  but  he  could  not 
wait  for  guards  or  remember  the  cane. 
When  one  saloon  keeper  had  threatened  his 
life,  he  went  at  once  and  had  a  friendly  talk 
with  him.  And,  of  course,  the  saloon 
keepers,  being  human,  liked  him  and  con- 
stantly came  to  him  for  help  when  they  got 
into  trouble. 

He  had  everything  possible  to  help  his 
people;  Christian  Endeavor,  Chautauqua 
Circle,  gymnasium,  always  something  new. 
But  note  this:  he  never  got  tired  of  the  old 


92      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

methods  if  they  did  good.  He  had  no  rage 
for  novelty;  he  was  looking  about  and  ex- 
perimenting to  find  the  best  things.  He  sent 
large  groups  of  girls  to  Northfield  and 
similar  places  every  summer,  some  paying 
their  own  way  wholly  or  in  part,  he  paying 
what  was  lacking.  He  went  with  them.  A 
photograph  lies  before  me,  the  first  group, 
forty,  I  think,  that  went  to  Northfield,  Mr. 
Devins  and  his  two  loyal  helpers,  Mrs. 
Devins  and  his  step-son,  Thornton  Penfield, 
in  the  front  row.  There  were  girls  who  had 
never  been  out  of  New  York  City  before, 
and  all  of  them  were  hard-working  girls. 
What  a  glorious  thing  to  do  for  them,  how 
enlarging  and  renovating  to  life  and  char- 
acter! It  should  be  noted  that  in  all  this 
work  Mr.  Devins  was  struggling  against 
fearful  comparative  odds.  The  elders  of 
the  Fourth  Avenue  Church  who  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  conduct  of  the  Hope  Chapel 
work  were  salt  of  the  earth;  salt  is  con- 
serving—  and  they  were  thoroughly  con- 
servative !  They  had  no  confidence  in  mod- 
ern methods  of  conducting  city  missions; 
two  preachings  and  Sunday-school,  and  mid- 
week prayer  meeting,  and  a  summer  picnic, 
and  constant  help  to  the  poor,  with  extra 
gifts  all  around  at  Christmas  —  that  was 
their  program.     Anything  else  was  looked  at 


PERSONAL  WORK  93 

askance.  They  would  not  appropriate  funds 
for  other  purposes.  So  Mr.  Devins  did  extra 
work  on  The  Tribune  nights,  and  reported 
General  Assemblies  and  the  like  to  earn 
money  for  the  Chapel  work.  He  lived  in 
the  simplest  manner  possible,  at  the  least 
expense.  He  put  more  cash  into  the  Chapel 
year  by  year  than  he  received  in  salary  as 
its  pastor.  It  is  easy  to  account  for  five  thou- 
sand dollars  and  more  of  remembered  ex- 
penditures of  the  kind,  and  nobody  knows 
how  much  is  not  remembered. 

Some  good  people  ask,  as  cases  present 
themselves,  "  How  much  must  I  give?  How 
much  must  I  do?  What  does  the  Lord  re- 
quire of  me?  What  will  be  expected? 
What  is  my  share?  What  is  the  least  that 
will  satisfy  my  conscience?  "  They  do  good, 
and  get  good  in  doing  it,  and  very  likely  at 
the  same  time  get  an  enormous  amount  of 
conceited  satisfaction.  I  believe  that  Mr. 
Devins  never  asked  one  of  those  questions. 
For  according  to  his  power,  I  bear  witness, 
yes  and  beyond  his  power,  he  gave  of  his  own 
accord,  beseeching  everybody  with  much  en- 
treaty to  accept  his  grace  and  fellowship  in 
so  ministering;  and  this,  not  as  some  are 
proud  to  do,  but  first  gave  his  own  self  to  the 
Lord,  and  to  everybody  through  the  will  of 
God.     "  What  can  I  do  for  you?  "  was  his 


94       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

constant  question;  and  If  you  had  no  answer 
ready,  he  would  suggest  one !  He  never 
"  went  out  of  his  way  "  to  do  anyone  good; 
for  his  way  always  was  His  way  whom  he 
loved  and  served  in  serving  His  children, 
the  way  of  Him  "  Who  went  about  doing 
good."     And  he  was  very,  very  happy. 


Dr.  Devins  at  44. 


CHAPTER  XV 

MORE  PERSONAL  WORK 

The  variety  of  Mr.  Devins'  personal 
work,  Its  extent,  some  of  its  characteristics 
and  some  of  its  successes,  should  be  more 
fully  illustrated.  In  a  long,  wide  and  more 
or  less  intimate  acquaintance  with  great  men 
of  affairs  In  the  Presbyterian  Church  I  have 
not  met  one,  unless  possibly  Dr.  John  Hall, 
whose  mind,  heart  and  efforts  embraced  so 
many,  so  different,  so  taxing,  so  time-taking 
persons,  causes,  movements.  I  am  quite  sure 
of  the  literal  truth  of  this  statement;  that  he 
never  neglected,  slighted  or  failed  In  deep 
sympathy  and  constant  effort  regarding  any 
one  of  them.  No  wonder  Mr.  Whitelaw 
Reid  said  of  him  that  The  Tribune  had  no 
more  faithful,  dependable  and  efficient  as- 
sistant; and  The  Tribune  was  never  more 
than  a  side-line,  though  a  most  useful  one,  to 
Mr,  Devins'  life  work. 

Mr.  Devins  was  one  of  the  earliest,  busiest 
and  most  popular  of  the  Public  Lecture  Corps 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  I  attended  some  of  his  lectures 
with  him.     They  were  given  in  public  schools 

95 


96      JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

all  over  the  city,  evenings,  and  were  freely 
open  to  pupils  and  their  parents  and  friends. 
He  had  lectures  on  a  wide  variety  of  topics, 
which  he  was  constantly  giving  also  In 
churches  and  elsewhere  as  they  were  called 
for.  He  threw  his  soul  into  each  one,  and 
got  into  the  souls  of  his  audience.  Stereop- 
ticon  slides,  anecdotes,  wit,  pathos,  all  helped; 
but  chiefest  was  his  soul  moving  those  souls 
before  him.  It  was  a  thrilling  thing  to 
watch.  The  people  crowded  about  him 
afterward,  to  take  his  hand,  to  hear  his  voice, 
to  tell  him  their  souls,  to  get  next  to  his  soul 
—  and  everyone  of  them  did  it.  His  soul 
was  open  to  every  human  being.  He  never, 
I  think,  pretended  deep  interest  in  anyone,  be- 
cause he  did  not  have  to;  he  had  the  interest. 
I  do  not  know  that  he  ever  said  Nihil  hu- 
maniim  a  me  siito,  but  he  lived  it. 

Dr.  Charles  S.  Stoddard  wrote  his  "  Au- 
gustus "  letter  for  The  Observer  of  March 
19,  1896,  on  "A  Personally  Conducted 
Tour."  That  was  long  before  Mr.  Devins 
became  connected  with  The  Observer.  The 
article  tells  how  Mr.  Devins,  "  who  is  rap- 
idly developing  into  a  first-class  practical 
philanthropist  "  led  a  party  of  members 
of  the  Housing  Conference  in  New  York,  to 
see  things  on  the  East  Side,  Dr.  Stoddard  ac- 
companying them  by  special  invitation.     Mr. 


MORE  PERSONAL  WORK       97 

Devins  led  hosts  of  such  parties;  sometimes 
a  few  personal  friends,  sometimes  a  professor 
from  Yale  or  some  other  college,  and  his  class 
in  sociology,  sometimes  distinguished  for- 
eigners of  world-wide  renown  in  philanthropy 
or  reform.  The  things  to  see  and  to  hear 
about  were  absorbingly  interesting,  but  I  al- 
ways noticed  that  the  personally  conducted 
people  were  as  interested  in  the  personality 
of  the  conductor  as  in  the  things  he  showed 
or  told  them.  He  was  so  deeply  moved  him- 
self by  the  things  he  saw  every  day,  so  tender 
for  the  poor  and  ignorant,  so  fierce  in  his 
rages  against  injustice,  against  rich  selfish- 
ness, flushing  deeply,  clenching  his  fists, 
breaking  off  his  sentences;  It  was  all  personal 
to  him. 

A  note  of  the  wideness  of  his  sympathies 
appears  in  the  article  he  wrote  for  The 
Christian  at  IVork  years  ago  about  the 
"  Sisterhood  of  Personal  Service,"  a  work 
of  Hebrew  ladles  much  like  that  of  the  King's 
Daughters.  It  was  purposed  to  give  here  a 
list  of  causes  that  he  personally  worked  for, 
but  the  number  is  so  incredibly  large  that  it 
cannot  be  done.  Four  or  five  striking  illus- 
trations of  his  personal  work  with  Individuals 
are  worth  more. 

In  an  article  entitled  "  Merry  Christmas  in 
the  Tenements,"  in  the  December  Century  of 


98       JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

1898,  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Rils  tells  of  a  call  on  Mr. 
Devins  at  Hope  Chapel.  "  Of  the  kind  of 
problems  that  beset  its  pastor,"  he  says,  "  I 
caught  a  glimpse  the  other  day  when  as  I 
entered  his  room,  a  rough  looking  man  went 
out.  '  One  of  my  cares,'  said  Mr.  Devins, 
looking  after  him  with  contracted  brow. 
'  He  has  spent  two  Christmas  days  of  twenty- 
three  out  of  jail.  He  is  a  burglar,  or  was. 
His  daughter  has  brought  him  around.  She 
is  a  seamstress.  For  three  months,  now,  she 
has  been  keeping  him  and  the  home,  working 
nights.  If  I  could  only  get  him  a  job!  He 
won't  stay  honest  long  without  it;  but  who 
wants  a  burglar  for  a  watchman?  '  "  Mr.  Dev- 
ins had  always  scores  of  such  people  on  his 
hands  and  heart.  His  patience  and  courtesy 
with  such  people,  with  all  people,  were  un- 
failing. A  former  gifted  minister  who  had 
fallen  far  down  and  was  still  young  came  to 
me  several  times  for  help.  Every  time  it 
cost  me  a  night  of  grief  because  I  could  not, 
somehow,  get  near  him  or  be  of  any  real  help. 
But  he  went  down  to  Dr.  Devins'  office  and 
straightway  began  a  steady  upward  course 
that  has  made  him  one  of  the  best  and  most 
useful  men  in  America. 

He  found  a  man  with  a  large  family  of 
small  children,  out  of  work,  discouraged. 
He   had   been   promised   a   position   on   the 


MORE  PERSONAL  WORK       99 

police  force,  but  was  rejected  because  his 
teeth  were  poor.  He  was  too  poor  to  have 
them  repaired.  Mr.  Devins  sent  the  man  to 
his  own  dentist  and  paid  the  bill.  The  over- 
joyed man  went  to  his  examination,  but  was 
rejected  because  he  was  slightly  under  height! 
"  Have  you  not  been  tramping  about  consid- 
erably? "  "Yes,  all  day."  "This  is  Fri- 
day. Go  home  and  rest  over  Sunday  and 
come  again."  He  did  so  and  on  Monday 
measured  an  inch  above  the  required  mark 
and  received  his  appointment.  He  duly  re- 
paid Mr.  Devins  the  amount  of  the  dentist 
bill  and  was  an  honored  member  of  the  force. 
An  anarchist  on  the  East  Side,  a  close 
friend  of  Johann  Most,  had  a  young  daugh- 
ter who  was  a  cigar  maker  and  also  kept 
the  motherless  home.  She  attended  Hope 
Chapel  Sunday-school.  Her  father  swore 
that  he  would  throw  her  out  of  the  house  if 
she  united  with  the  church.  She  did  and  he 
did  as  he  promised.  Mrs.  Devins  took  her 
into  that  plain  little  heaven  up  over  the 
Chapel.  She  was  aided  to  go  to  Northfield 
and  to  the  Moody  Institute  in  Chicago  to 
study  to  become  a  missionary.  She  worked 
among  the  freedmen  and  was  about  to  go  as 
a  missionary  to  Africa  when  tuberculosis 
seized  her.  Again  she  was  received  into  that 
Christlike  home.     At  the  cemetery  after  the 


loo     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

funeral,  her  father  said  to  Mr.  Devins: 
"  Whatever  you  tell  me  to  do,  I  will  do." 
He  gave  up  a  saloon  which  he  had  secured 
by  marrying  its  proprietor;  he  kept  his  word, 
fully. 

A  letter  came  recently  to  Mrs.  Devins  from 
a  stranger,  saying  in  part:  "  Dr.  Devins  is  ac- 
countable for  the  fact  that  I  am  a  useful  citi- 
zen. He  put  out  the  hand  of  understanding 
fellowship  when  I  sorely  needed  it.  He 
counseled  me  and  encouraged  me  aright  when 
everything  looked  black.  He  was  sui  gen- 
eris, a  kind  represented  only  by  himself,  and 
if  I  may  be  so  bold,  I  will  say  he  was  the  best 
(man  I  ever  came  in  contact  with.  His  soul 
was  kindly,  and  despite  the  fact  that  he  car- 
ried on  his  broad  shoulders  and  in  his  great 
heart  a  load  of  responsibility  that  would  have 
staggered  anybody  else,  he  had  always  time 
to  cheer  a  fellow  when  he  needed  it.  .  .  . 
I  am  not  a  professing  Christian,  but  if  there 
is  any  power  that  could  convert  me  it  would 
be  the  wonderful  example  of  Dr.  Devins  and 
his  practical  methods  of  working."  To  this 
correspondent,  who  is  the  son  of  a  former 
great  man  and  United  States  Senator,  Mrs. 
Devins  at  once  directed  a  friend  who  lived 
near  him.  The  friend  called,  explained  to 
him  the  way  of  life;  and  he  accepted  the 
Saviour  and  purposed  to  take  up  as  far  as 


MORE  PERSONAL  WORK      loi 

possible  the  work  of  helping  "  the  other  fel- 
low "  and  so  perpetuate  the  influence  of  Dr. 
Devins.  This  was  within  a  week  after  Dr. 
Devins'  death. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle,  whose  name  and 
fame  and  power  are  in  all  the  world,  was  a 
member  of  Hope  Chapel  while  he  was  a 
young  workingman,  and  became  Dr.  Devins' 
successor  in  the  pastorate  of  the  Chapel.  He 
said  in  part  at  the  funeral  services:  "  I  am 
very  glad  on  this  occasion  to  speak  of  my 
personal  appreciation  of  what  Dr.  Devins 
meant  to  me.  When  Dr.  Devins  came  to 
Hope  Chapel  I  was  a  young  fellow  just  about 
entering  a  machine  shop  on  the  East  Side  of 
New  York  City,  not  having  many  opportuni- 
ties of  education  and  some  other  things  which 
I  have  since  enjoyed.  I  recall  all  that  Dr. 
Devins  meant  to  me,  say  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
and  sixteen  to  twenty-one.  You  know  what 
a  friend  means  to  a  fellow  of  that  sort  — 
Dr.  Devins  was  that  kind.  I  was  not  afraid 
to  come  to  him  with  anything;  he  knew  more 
of  the  secrets  of  my  life  than  any  man  in  this 
world.  I  told  him  freely  because  he  was  a 
friend,  because  of  that  sympathy  which  was 
so  manifest  in  every  relationship  of  life.  In 
spite  of  that  strong  frame  of  his,  he  was  ten- 
der as  a  child;  he  sympathized  most  lovingly, 
for   he    himself   had   passed   through    those 


I02     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

afflictions  —  he  was  kin  to  all  men.  I  re- 
member well  how  as  a  boy  he  led  me,  through 
the  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  the  Sunday- 
school  and  through  the  organization  of  Hope 
Chapel.  When  I  felt  I  must  study  for  the 
ministry,  even  though  I  was  a  member  of 
another  church  at  that  time  in  another  city, 
I  went  to  Dr.  Devins  and  told  him  that  I 
wanted  to  study  for  the  ministry.  It  was  Dr. 
Devins  who  helped  me  to  enter  the  Moody 
School  in  Chicago,  and  I  recall  also  that  Dr. 
Devins  loaned  me  the  fare  to  go  to  Chicago 
to  begin  my  work  of  preparation  for  the  Gos- 
pel ministry  when  so  few  other  people 
thought  I  would  ever  amount  to  anything  in 
the  work  of  Jesus  Christ;  it  was  Dr.  Devins 
that  helped  me  and  pushed  me  forward  and 
encouraged  me  to  go  on  in  the  way  I  felt 
God  had  called  me." 

Mr.  Stelzle  is  probably  the  most  illustrious, 
on  earth,  of  the  fruitage  of  Dr.  Devins'  per- 
sonal work.  But  what  a  record  of  it  all  there 
is  above !  Dr.  Devins  lived  poor  and  died 
poor.     Is  he  one  of  the  richest  up  there? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  FINISH  AND  THE  NEW  START 

"John  Bancroft  Devlns  —  that  Is  a  name 
honored  in  Presbyterianism  as  but  few 
names  are  honored,  honored  throughout  the 
Christian  church  and  honored  in  all  circles 
of  life  where  he  is  known."  So  Dr.  John  F. 
Carson,  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  began  his  notable 
address  at  Dr.  Devins'  funeral  in  Dr.  Car- 
son's own  church  in  Brooklyn.  No  attempt 
can  be  made  to  quote  the  other  notable  things 
said  and  written  about  Dr.  Devins  since  his 
death  as  well  as  before  It.  They  would 
easily  occupy  a  volume.  No  attempt  can  be 
made  to  relate  and  estimate  his  years  of  work 
on  The  Observer;  his  trip  around  the  world 
and  his  later  Mediterranean  trip;  the  observ- 
ant, scholarly,  popular  books  he  wrote  about 
the  two  trips;  the  constant  widening  of  his 
sympathies  with  many  kinds  of  philanthropic 
effort,  his  official  relations  to  organizations 
seeking  their  promotion,  his  constantly  aug- 
menting burdens  of  responsibility  and  ex- 
penditure of  time,  money,  strength.  In  con- 
nection with  them;  his  helpful  relations  to  in- 

103 


104     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

dividuals,  organizations,  movements,  causes 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  many  other 
denominations,  unconnected  with  denomina- 
tions; his  constant  correspondence  and  con- 
ferences with  leaders  in  the  world's  work  for 
the  unevangelized,  the  poor,  the  oppressed, 
the  ignorant,  the  unfortunate  in  many  lands; 
his  never  failing  faithfulness  to  his  family 
circle,  to  his  friends,  to  his  former  parish- 
ioners on  the  East  Side,  to  an  ever  widening 
circle.  The  study  of  these  things,  item  by 
item,  and  classified  and  massed,  leaves  me 
bewildered  and  marveling  at  the  almost  un- 
believable total  and  the  complexity  of  it.  I 
watched  him  at  close  range  during  the  last 
six  years,  our  offices  in  the  same  building  and 
our  talk  about  all  these  things  going  on  al- 
most daily,  but  I  did  not  apprehend  the  amaz- 
ing total  of  his  labors. 

I  think  it  best,  in  the  close  affectionate 
spirit  of  these  pages  and  so  most  likely  to 
meet  the  wishes  of  Dr.  Devins'  friends,  to 
dwell  now  upon  only  a  single  phase  of  his 
life  work,  and  upon  the  ending  of  it.  This 
phase  of  his  work  was  one  that  engaged  him 
deeply  from  his  first  life  in  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  City,  and  with  increasing  devotion 
and  practical  consecration  to  it,  until  the  end. 
It  was  the  first  public  philanthropic  work  he 
engaged  in,  and  was  the  last  work  that  he  did 


FINISH  AND  NEW  START     105 

on  earth;  and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  he  sac- 
rificed, at  the  last.  In  that  work  and  his  total 
devotion  to  it,  what  might  perhaps  have  been, 
without  that  sacrifice,  more  years  of  earthly 
life.  I  refer  of  course,  to  the  work  of  the 
Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund,  which  every  sum- 
mer gives  country  outings  of  generous  length 
to  children  of  the  tenements. 

From  the  beginning  of  student  days  in 
New  York  young  Devins  fell  In  love  with  that 
beautiful  and  practical  charity,  and  served  it 
In  every  possible  way  for  many  years  with- 
out any  financial  compensation  —  and  that 
during  just  the  years  when  his  struggle  to  find 
means  to  keep  him  alive  for  his  studies  was 
most  terrific.  Every  year  saw  him  giving 
more  thought  and  service  to  this  cause,  and 
every  year  the  service  was  of  a  higher  and 
more  valuable  sort;  yet  never,  to  the  last 
day  of  his  life,  did  he  lessen  his  earlier  habit 
of  the  closest  possible  touch  with  the  Individ- 
ual children  and  his  interest  In  every  smallest 
thing  that  affected  their  happiness  and  wel- 
fare. I  think  that  a  moment's  meditation 
over  that  last  sentence  may  be  most  illuminat- 
ing regarding  the  extraordinary  characteris- 
tics of  his  philanthropic  work,  differentiating 
him  from  most  even  of  the  best  of  philan- 
thropic workers. 

When  the  Rev.  Willard  Parsons,  the  or- 


io6     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

iginator  and  long  time  Manager  of  the  Trib- 
une Fresh  Air  Fund,  laid  down  his  work  in 
1906,  Dr.  Devins  was  chosen  to  succeed  him, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the 
office.  He  displayed  at  once  the  largest 
statesmanship  regarding  the  work.  The 
Tribune  said  of  this,  after  his  death: 

"  Amid  the  successes  of  the  year  the  Trib- 
une Fresh  Air  Fund  suffered  one  irreparable 
loss  in  the  death  of  the  man  who  for  five 
years  had  so  ably  directed  its  activities,  the 
Rev.   Dr.  John  Bancroft  Devins.     No  man 
ever  brought  to  his  work  a  heart  more  de- 
voted nor  a  genius  better  adapted  to  its  re- 
quirements   than    did   this    truly   great  man. 
Taking  hold  of  the  Fresh  Air  work  at  the 
point  where  his  predecessor,  the  Rev.  Willard 
Parsons,   had  left  it,  he  continued  and  aug- 
mented  its   success.     What  executive   ability 
he  combined  with  his  greatness  of  heart  is 
shown   by   the   things   in  the   work   that   are 
peculiarly  his.    He  found  the  Tribune  Fund  a 
great  organization  for  sending  children  to  the 
country,  but  he  was  not  content  to  continue  it 
with  that  one  aim.     He  felt  that  there  were 
to  be  found  among  the  multitudes  of  the  poor, 
little  children  whose  cases  were  deserving  of 
special  attention.     Starting  with  this  idea,  he 
was  led  by  a  careful  study  of  conditions  to 
institute   what  might  be   called  a  policy  of 


FINISH  AND  NEW  START     107 

specialization.  The  result  of  this  was  the 
establishment  of  the  home  for  undernourished 
children  at  Shokan,  the  homes  for  convales- 
cents at  Middletown  and  Deposit,  and  the 
homes  for  older  girls  and  boys  at  Chapel  Hill 
and  Bethany.  The  point  to  which  above  all 
others,  however.  Dr.  Devins  directed  his  at- 
tention was  the  increasing  of  the  revenues  of 
the  Fund.  He  so  systematized  this  matter 
that  during  each  year  of  his  incumbency  the 
number  of  contributors  went  up  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  in  this  regard 
that  in  five  years  the  number  of  people  giving 
annually  to  the  cause  which  lay  so  near  the 
heart  of  the  great  leader  has  been  increased 
from  891  to  3,301."  He  wrote  September 
I,  19 10:  "  I  have  prayed  for  big  tasks,  and 
I  have  one;  now  I  pray  for  money  to  pay  the 
bills." 

He  remained  at  his  post  during  the  entire 
hot  summer  of  191 1,  in  his  Observer  office 
every  morning,  at  his  Fresh  Air  Fund  office 
in  The  Tribune  building  every  afternoon  and 
night,  usually  until  midnight  or  later.  There 
were  a  thousand  details  of  the  work  upon 
which  he  felt  that  he  must  keep  his  hand, 
thousands  of  poor  children  who  could  not 
have  their  fortnight  in  the  country  unless  he 
secured  more  funds.  Mrs.  Devins,  too  ill  to 
be  away  from  home,  was  with  him  until  Mon- 


io8     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

day,  August  21,  when  he  took  her  to  North- 
field,  spent  a  single  hour  there  and  returned 
to  his  office.  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  were 
spent  in  the  two  offices  until  after  midnight. 
He  posted  a  brief  and  characteristic  note  to 
Mrs.  Devins  as  he  left  the  office  Wednesday 
night  signing  it,  "  Your  sleepy,  loving  John." 
He  was  taken  ill  on  the  trolley  car  to  his 
Brooklyn  home,  and  was  very  ill  after  reach- 
ing there,  so  that  the  faithful  and  devoted 
housekeeper  summoned  a  doctor  at  once,  who 
presently  called  another.  All  day  Thursday 
he  sat  propped  with  cushions  in  a  steamer 
chair,  the  telephone  in  his  hand  much  of  the 
time,  his  secretary  and  helper  from  his  two 
offices  often  with  him,  directing  The  Observer 
and  Fresh  Air  Fund  work.  On  Friday  he 
was  weaker,  often  dozing,  but  working 
steadily.  He  was  unconscious  Friday  night. 
Mrs.  Devins  was  telegraphed  for,  a  trained 
nurse  secured,  the  doctors  constant  in  attend- 
ance; and  at  six  o'clock  he  passed  unexpect- 
edly and  quietly  from  earth.  Mrs.  Devins 
arriving  from  Northfield  later,  and  met  by  a 
friend  who  did  not  know  of  the  end,  entered 
his  room  to  find  him  dead.  May  God  com- 
fort her !     He  does. 

The  New  Start.  Every  letter  he  wrote  in 
those  last  days  seems  to  have  been  full  of  his 
heart  hunger  to  help  more  of  "  his  children  " 


FINISH  AND  NEW  START     109 

to  God's  out-of-doors.  One  of  the  many  be- 
fore me,  written  to  a  friend  in  Philadelphia, 
gives  the  longest  of  its  three  brief  paragraphs 
to  that:  "I  take  great  pleasure  in  seeing 
the  children  go  to  the  country,  although  it 
means  few  hours  of  sleep  during  July  and 
August,  but  it  means  a  great  many  hours  of 
pleasure  to  the  children." 

Regarding  his  New  Start  in  his  Father's 
House,  who  can  help  applying  to  him  these 
words  which  he  spoke  not  long  before  at  the 
funeral  of  his  long-time  friend,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
O'Connor:  "  What  a  beautiful  thing  to  finish 
your  life  work  and  stop!  So  many  men  and 
women  have  finished  their  work  and  are  now 
existing.  You  can't  imagine  Dr.  O'Connor 
not  working.  He  is  doing  something  now. 
He  was  a  man  by  the  side  of  the  road  help- 
ing the  fellow  who  needed  his  help  the  most. 
Dr.  O'Connor  was  faithful  to  every  call.  I 
can't  imagine  Dr.  O'Connor  turning  anyone 
away  who  needed  help.  You  can't  help  men 
by  hating  them.  He  loved  men.  He  was 
not  holding  up  a  hierarchy,  he  was  holding  up 
Christ.  Here  at  his  coffin  I  pledge  myself 
to  a  nobler,  purer  work  for  Jesus  Christ. 
Will  you?" 


CHAPTER  XVII 

TRIBUTES 

Like  the  beauty  and  perfume  of  chosen 
flowers  sent  by  friends,  hke  the  assuaging 
balm  of  soft  music  in  the  dark,  like  a  touch 
of  a  tender  hand  when  words  fail;  being  in- 
deed the  sympathy  of  God  Himself  ministered 
from  the  other  room  of  our  Father's  house, 
where  our  friend  had  gone  to  stay,  through 
His  children's  tender-hearted  fellow-feeling; 
alleviating  grief  and  quickening  courage ;  were 
the  words  spoken,  written,  printed,  which 
came  innumerable,  blessing,  heartening.  A 
volume  would  not  hold  them,  although  a 
heart  can.  They  have  been  studied,  classi- 
fied, and  from  selected  ones  of  each  class  sen- 
tences have  been  chosen  to  illustrate  the  wide- 
ness  of  appreciation  and  sympathy  mani- 
fested, and,  especially,  the  extraordinary  va- 
riety of  the  interests,  devotions  and  achieve- 
ments of  Dr.  Devins.  The  first  of  these, 
published  in  The  Continent,  was  entitled, 
"  The  Passing  of  a  Greatheart  Soul  "  and 
read: 

For  years  no  news  more  startling  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  has  gone  abroad  through 

no 


TRIBUTES  1 1 1 

its  fellowship  than  the  announcement  on  Sat- 
urday last  of  the  death  of  Dr.  John  Bancroft 
Devins,  the  editor  of  The  New  York  Ob- 
server. Among  the  self-made  men  whom' 
America  is  proud  to  claim  as  a  characteristic 
glory  of  the  republic,  not  one  has  ever  shown 
a  more  splendid  pluck  and  steadfastness 
of  purpose  than  John  Bancroft  Devins. 
Born  fifty-five  years  ago  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  in  poverty  that  would  submerge  any 
but  the  most  heroic  soul,  he  fought  his  way 
to  a  position  in  life  and  an  esteem  among  his 
fellows  equally  creditable  to  his  intellectual 
quality  and  his  spiritual  mettle.  Through 
a  tremendous  struggle,  he  obtained  an  educa- 
tion for  the  ministry,  graduating  from  New 
York  University  in  1882  and  Union  Seminary 
in  1887.  Ordained  to  the  ministry  in  1888, 
he  served,  with  notable  strength  and  success, 
ten  years  as  pastor  of  Hope  Chapel  and  four 
years  as  pastor  of  Broome  Street  Tabernacle, 
downtown  churches  in  New  York,  feeling  the 
full  stress  of  the  city  problem. 

In  his  student  days  Dr.  Devins  had  largely 
supported  himself  by  reportorial  work  on  The 
New  York  Tribune,  and  this  experience  in 
journalism  gave  him  the  liking  for  printer's 
ink  which,  in  the  year  1898,  occasioned  his 
joining  the  staff  of  The  New  York  Observer, 
the  famous  Presbyterian  paper  identified  with 


112     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  influential  Prime  and  Stoddard  families. 
Four  years  later  he  became  the  editor  of  the 
paper,  and  has  conducted  it  ever  since  in  loyal 
devotion  to  the  highest  purposes  of  religious 
journalism. 

But  his  editorial  labors  could  not  exhaust 
the  abundant  vitality  of  the  man,  and  an  in- 
eradicable sense  of  afliliation  with  the  poor 
of  New  York,  whose  trial  and  privation  he 
had  once  shared,  expressed  itself  through  an 
active  and  laborious  interest  in  almost  every 
form  of  civic  charity  known  to  the  great  me- 
tropolis. He  was  a  strong  helper  in  the  New 
York  Association  for  Improving  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Poor  and  in  the  Home  for  the 
Friendless,  the  latter  of  which  was  much  en- 
larged through  gifts  that  he  secured.  But 
the  interest  which  most  of  all  consumed  him 
was  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund,  of  which  he 
has  been  since  1907  the  manager.  To  give 
the  boys  and  girls  of  New  York  slums  an  an- 
nual taste  of  God's  free  air  in  the  country  be- 
came a  passion  to  him,  and  to  that  undoubt- 
edly Dr.  Devins  sacrificed  his  life;  for  with- 
out question  the  explanation  of  his  untimely 
decease  is  his  tremendous  overwork  of  the 
past  summer  in  superintending  this  very  prac- 
tical charity. 

Nor  did  organizational  philanthropy  com- 
pass the  kindness  of  his  heart.      Dr.  Devins 


TRIBUTES  113 

wherever  he  went,  was  the  most  thoughtful 
and  helpful  of  men.  When  reproached  for 
apparently  indiscriminate  giving  to  beg- 
gars, he  only  replied:  "You  never  knicw 
yourself  what  it  means  to  be  hungry."  The 
working  people  of  the  Presbyterian  building, 
where  he  has  had  his  office  for  many  years, 
were  devotedly  attached  to  him  because  they 
had  all  had  experience  of  his  personal  kind- 
ness. A  true  Greatheart,  full  of  the  tender- 
ness and  loving  kindness  of  his  Master,  Dr. 
Devins  has  enshrined  in  thousands  of  hearts 
a  memory  that  is  as  noble  an  epitaph  as  any 
human  life  may  win. —  From  The  Con- 
tinent. 

*      *      * 

We  left  our  table  at  the  General  Assembly 
last  May,  at  the  close  of  a  weary  morning  ses- 
sion, forgetting  to  take  with  us  our  friend,  the 
fountain  pen.  We  remembered  ere  half  the 
distance  down  the  "  steel  pier  "  had  been  trav- 
ersed and  hurried  back  to  the  table  of  The 
Continent.  No  pen  was  visible.  Some 
lover  of  relics  had  gathered  it  in.  The  call 
on  the  attendants  brought  no  results.  An  ad- 
vertisement from  the  Assembly  rostrum  in 
the  afternoon  was  heard  by  all  present,  for 
the  assistant  stated  clerk  gave  it,  but,  alas  1 
was  answered  by  none.     The  pen  had  gone. 

Two  days  later  there  came  to  our  table  a 


114    JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

man  carrying  in  his  hand  two  pens.  "  Have 
you  found  your  pen?  "  he  asked.  A  negative 
head  shake  was  the  answer.  "  Try  these," 
said  the  man.  We  obeyed.  "  Which  is  the 
better? "  he  inquired.  We  held  up  one. 
*'  My  compliments,"  said  the  man,  and  turned 
to  go.  "  Wait !  "  we  called.  "  This  is  not  a 
new  pen.  It  bears  the  marks  of  use.  It  is 
your  own.  We  cannot  take  this."  "  My 
compliments,"  he  repeated:  "glad  to  serve 
you."     And  he  hurried  away. 

The  man  was  Dr.  John  Bancroft  Devins, 
and  the  pen  is  now  writing  this  little  story. 

Now  for  the  point.  On  the  Monday  after 
the  sudden  death  of  the  lamented  editor  of 
The  New  York  Observer,  we  called  at  The 
Observer  office  in  the  Presbyterian  building. 
New  York,  where  for  years  he  had  wrought. 
We  offered  our  word  of  sympathy  to  the  one 
who  had  been  editorial  assistant  and,  among 
other  things,  we  spoke  of  this  gift  of  the  pen. 
"  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  knew.  The  doc- 
tor came  over  from  you  that  day  and  said, 
'  Well,  I've  given  Dr.  Holmes  my  pen.' 
'What?'  I  answered.  'Your  pet  pen?' 
'Yes.'  'Why,  what  will  you  do?'  I  asked 
again.  '  You  have  written  with  that  pen  for 
years.'  '  Oh,  well,  that's  nothing.  He 
needs  it.    He'll  make  better  use  of  it  than  L'  " 

Simple  story.     In  that  was  the  spirit  of 


TRIBUTES  115 

Sir  Philip  Sidney  at  Zutphen  enacted  once 
more.  It  was  a  simple  act,  but  life's  great- 
est acts  are  simple.  There  are  many  peo- 
ple in  the  city  of  New  York  who  can  tell  sim- 
ilar stories  about  Dr.  Devlns.  He  had  thor- 
oughly learned  the  lesson  of  need  and  sacri- 
fice. A  man  must  have  suffered  himself  or 
he  cannot  know  how  to  draw  nigh  to  suffer- 
ing with  needed  aid.  At  some  time  or  in 
some  degree  one  must  have  been  "  down  and 
out,"  if  he  is  to  be  of  real  service  in  helping 
others  "  up  and  in."  One  need  not  have  been 
an  awful  sinner  in  order  to  have  been  on  "  the 
lower  side  of  things."  Birth  may  have  put 
him  there.  Our  country  has  produced  many, 
both  men  and  women,  who  were  born 
"  down  "  and  died  "  up."  The  man  who 
surmounts  inherited  difficulty  Is  one  of  Car- 
lyle's  kings.  Of  such  was  he  with  the  pen 
and  the  genial  wave  of  the  hand  and  the 
words  not  soon  to  be  forgotten,  "  My  compli- 
ments." 

Chivalry  in  its  best  days  did  nothing  finer. 
Larger,  no  doubt,  but  not  finer.  We  write 
advisedly.  Jesus  Is  on  record  In  the  matter 
of  a  woman  who  gave  two  mites  to  the  temple 
treasury.  "  More  than  they  all,"  he  said. 
His  was  a  spiritual  measuring  line.  Look 
at  this  gift  of  a  pen  from  a  spiritual 
point  of  view.     A  writer's  pen  to  which  he 


ii6     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

has  become  wedded  Is  like  the  pocket  knife 
of  a  whittler.  It  grows  to  the  hand  that 
holds  it.  No  other  pen  feels  like  it;  no  other 
will  write  like  it.  One  almost  dares  to  add, 
no  other  can  think  like  it.  Good  paper,  good 
ink,  and  a  pen  which  fits  the  hand !  Who 
can  tell  what  the  outcome  of  such  a  combina- 
tion will  be?  Dr.  Devins  was  parting  with 
an  editorial  asset  when  he  said  with  such 
nonchalance,  "  My  compliments." 

This  little  story  of  Dr.  Devins  is,  like  the 
pen  of  which  it  tells,  nothing  without  Its  point. 
That  point  Is  that  the  value  of  benevolence 
is  not  in  size  or  amount,  but  In  devotion  to 
Jesus  Christ  which  underlies  it.  We  wish  the 
world  had  kept  no  record  of  the  sum  total  of 
the  money  value  of  the  gifts  given  by  men 
and  women  of  wealth.  There  are  people  liv- 
ing to-day  who  have  given  away  more  than 
they  at  the  present  time  possess. 

The  old  Latin  word  sacer  is  the  basis 
of  the  word  sacrifice.  A  sacrifice  is  some- 
thing that  has  been  made  over  to  God  by  an 
oath.  Its  eye  (surely  the  figure  Is  legiti- 
mate) looks  out  toward  God,  and  its  mouth 
says,  "  I  and  my  maker  are  thine."  How 
much  looking  toward  God  is  there  In  the 
money  which  Is  dropped,  nickels  and  dimes, 
Into  the  Sunday  collection  plate?  The  of- 
ficiating   clergymen    must   perforce    see    the 


TRIBUTES  117 

plates  as  the  offering  gatherers  stand  before 
the  pulpit  waiting  for  the  prayer  of  consecra- 
tion. The  faces  on  the  coins  look  up  toward 
the  preacher  or  down  into  the  bottom  of  the 
plate  and  not  a  glance  says,  "  We  represent  a 
sacrifice."  The  minister,  if  he  were  honest, 
might  well  pray,  "  Lord,  here  are  pennies, 
nickels,  dimes,  representing  the  abundance 
that  thou  hast  given  us.  We  had  these  in 
our  pockets;  our  checkbooks  we  have  left  at 
home."  The  prayer  would  tell  the  truth,  but 
the  minister  would  be  asked  by  a  grieved  peo- 
ple to  seek  another  field. 

Are  we  allowing  our  pen  to  wander  from 
its  point?  Not  in  the  least.  The  pen  in  our 
hand  is  our  ever-present  reminder  of  the  sac- 
rifice that  made  it  ours.  Sacrifice  without 
cost  is  impossible.  There  must  be  death  of 
sentiment  of  some  kind.  The  writer  is 
swayed  by  sentiment.  He  grows  to  love  his 
pen.  The  large-hearted  man  who  said,  "  My 
compliments,"  was  parting  with  that  which 
had  become  identified  with  himself.  Had  he 
written  with  it  his  interesting  letters  of  travel? 
Did  it  trace  the  lines  of  the  books  he  made? 
Did  it  make  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  army  of 
children  who  owed  to  its  wielder  their  trips 
to  the  country  when  the  hot  summer  days 
came?  It  was  not  his  brain  that  Dr.  Devins 
passed  so  generously  to  a  friend.      It  was  the 


ii8     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Instrument  of  his  power,  around  which  the 
tendrils  of  sentiment  had  twined.  We  did 
not  know  what  the  gift  meant  to  the  giver  on 
the  day  he  placed  it  in  our  hand.  Since  we 
have  learned,  we  write  with  a  new  under- 
standing of  the  word  sacrifice. 

R.  S.  rl. 

*      *      * 

"  New  York  City  has  lost  one  of  its  best 
citizens  in  the  sudden  death  of  Dr.  John  Ban- 
croft Devins.  His  first  charge,  in  East 
Fourth  Street  Presbyterian  Chapel,  was 
among  the  poor,  and  he  gave  himself  to  it 
with  the  industry  and  resourcefulness  that 
marked  all  his  activities.  He  promoted  the 
Federation  of  East  Side  Workers,  because 
he  saw  that  wretchedness  knew  no  denomi- 
national bounds.  The  Society  for  Improve- 
ing  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  found  use  for 
his  talents  as  manager  of  its  employment 
bureau.  Later  he  was  the  English  pastor  of 
Broome  Street  Tabernacle.  And  all  the  time 
he  was  lifting  in  every  cause  which  had  at 
heart  the  social  or  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
plain  people  of  Manhattan.  Naturally 
enough  he  was  selected  to  manage  the  noble 
charity  known  as  '  The  Tribune  Fresh  Air 
Fund  '  when  its  originator  laid  it  down  a  few 
years  ago.  A  thoroughly  trained  journalist, 
Dr.  Devins  had  written  for  and  edited  perl- 


TRIBUTES  119 

odicals  of  many  sorts  when  he  came  to  the 
managing  editorship  of  The  New  York  Ob- 
server, in  1898.  Since  1902  he  has  been  the 
editor  of  this  staunch  Presbyterian  weekly, 
our  nearest  neighbor.  Firm  in  the  faith, 
scrupulously  fair  to  his  opponents,  studiously 
striving  to  serve  Presbyterlanism,  and  through 
it  the  whole  cause  of  evangelical  Christianity, 
Dr.  Devlns  has  been  a  worthy  successor  of  the 
great   editorial    line    of    The    Observer."  — 

The  Christian  Advocate. 

*      *      * 

"  The  mission  cause  never  had  a  better 
friend  than  the  editor  of  The  New  York  Ob- 
server, whose  sudden  death  on  August  26th, 
191 1,  brought  sorrow  to  many  hearts  in  many 
lands. 

"  John  Bancroft  Devins  by  voice  and  pen, 
through  secular  and  religious  press,  by  per- 
sonal visitation  and  letter  was  known  and 
loved  throughout  the  world.  We  can  well 
believe  that  hundreds  of  missionaries  who 
have  gone  out  under  the  Presbyterian  Board 
during  the  last  few  years  will  recall  with 
pleasure  the  delightful  hours  spent  as  guests 
of  the  Presbyterian  Union  during  the  annual 
June  reception  for  newly  appointed  mission- 
aries. These  hours  were  made  delightful 
largely  by  the  painstaking  care  and  unselfish 
service,  the  scrupulous  attention  to  details,  on 


I20    JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  part  of  Dr.  Devins.  In  every  way  he 
was  the  friend  of  the  missionary.  In  his  trip 
around  the  world  he  spent  most  of  his  time 
with  missionaries.  His  pen  was  ever  ready 
to  defend  their  cause,  make  known  their 
wants,  spread  about  the  wondrous  story  of 
their  devotion.  He  had  a  vision  of  things  at 
home  and  of  things  abroad.  He  plead  for 
the  Bowery  outcast  and  the  consumptive  in 
the  East  Side  tenement.  His  appeal  for  the 
children  '  soaked  in  the  city's  slime,'  asking 
that  a  breath  of  fresh  air  might  be  given 
them,  linked  Dr.  Devins  with  fresh  air  work 
the  country  over.  But  this  did  not  stop  his 
ear  to  the  cry  of  the  famine-stricken  ones  in 
An  Hui,  China,  nor  stay  his  hand  for  the 
castaway  children  of  the  Ganges,  nor  harden 
his  heart  to  the  needs  of  the  dark-skinned 
waifs  of  Uncle  Sam  in  the  Philippines.  He 
had  the  Christlike  spirit  which  knew  no 
geographical,  racial,  or  social  boundaries. 

"  In  behalf  of  the  missionary  we  place  to- 
day a  wreath  of  loving,  loyal  affection,  to  the 
memory  of  John  Bancroft  Devins." 

From  The  Assembly  Herald. 

*      *      * 

"  The  sudden  death  last  week  at  his  home 
in  Brooklyn  from  an  attack  of  acute  indiges- 
tion of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Bancroft  Devins, 
editor  of  the  New  York  Observer,  startled 


TRIBUTES  121 

and  greatly  grieved  his  wide  circle  of  friends. 
Dr.  Devins  was  at  his  office  on  Wednesday, 
and  on  Saturday  morning  his  death  was  an- 
nounced. To  his  position  as  editor  of  the 
Observer  he  brought  considerable  journalistic 
experience  gained  from  his  connection  for  sev- 
eral years  with  the  reportorial  staff  of  The 
New  York  Tribune.  His  editorship  of  The 
Observer  was  marked  with  acknowledged 
efficiency,  his  aim  being  to  collect  the  religious 
news  of  the  country  as  fully  and  completely 
as  the  newspapers  collect  the  daily  happen- 
ings in  the  world  at  large.  In  1903-4,  while 
on  a  tour  of  the  world  he  remained  in  the 
Philippines  long  enough  to  complete  a  book 
of  '  Observations  '  on  the  islands  which  he 
dedicated  to  Col.  Roosevelt,  and  which  con- 
tained a  foreword  written  by  President  Taft. 
In  recent  years,  besides  engaging  in  his  edi- 
torial work,  Dr.  Devins  has  had  charge  of 
several  funds  raised  to  send  children  from  the 
East  Side  to  the  country  for  the  summer 
months.  He  was  cut  down  in  the  midst  of 
his  great  usefulness,  and  '  the  mourners  go 
about  the  streets.'  The  Intelligencer  assures 
his  bereaved  family  and  The  Observer  of  sin- 
cere sympathy." 

*      *      * 

"  John    Bancroft    Devins,    whose    sudden 
death  is  recorded  elsewhere  in  our  columns, 


122     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

enriched  the  world  by  his  life,  and  leaves  in 
his  death  a  distinct  sense  of  loss.  As  a  prac- 
tical newspaper  man  of  much  versatility  and 
energy,  as  a  Christian  pastor  and  preacher, 
as  manager  of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund 
and  In  various  other  labors,  public  and  pri- 
vate, he  served  his  day  and  generation  with 
singular  sincerity  and  faithfulness  and  with  a 
more  than  ordinary  degree  of  efficiency.  He 
commanded  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his 
associates,  and  he  leaves  behind  him  among 
a  multitude  the  memory  of  a  blameless  char- 
acter and  a  useful  career." — The  New  York 
Tribune. 

*      *      * 

"  Profound  sorrow  has  been  expressed  dur- 
ing the  week  at  the  sudden  death  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  John  Bancroft  Devlns,  editor  of  The  New 
York  Observer,  philanthropist  and  publicist. 
Dr.  Devlns  was  one  of  the  strong  men  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  locally,  and  was  known 
and  loved  by  a  large  part  of  the  membership. 
He  had  as  many  friends  among  the  multi- 
races  of  the  East  Side  through  his  settlement 
work   and   management   of   fresh   air  work. 
He  had  a  breadth  uncommon  In  a  denomina- 
tional editor  and  a  love  for  his  fellow  man 
which  kept  his  hand  constantly  giving  to  the 
unfortunate.     Reproved  once  for  Indiscrimi- 
nate giving,  when  he  had  been  appealed  to 


TRIBUTES  123 

by  a  down-and-out  man,  he  said  to  his  critic: 

'  You  never  knew  what  it  was  to  be  hungry 

and  broke.'     The  secret  was  that  he  knew  this 

of  his  own  experience  and  he  felt  for  every 

one  in  need  and  gave  freely." —  From   The 

New  York  Mail. 

*      *      * 

"  The  death  of  Dr.  Devins  was  so  sudden 
that  the  church  is  only  beginning  to  realize 
its  loss.  He  will  be  missed  in  his  ministry 
to  thousands  of  New  York's  poor  children 
through  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund.  He 
will  be  missed  as  the  secretary  of  the  New 
York  Presbyterian  Social  Union,  of  which  he 
was  the  mainstay.  He  will  be  missed  in  the 
Presbytery  and  the  many  philanthropic  insti- 
tutions of  which  he  was  a  director.  He  will 
be  missed  as  editor  of  his  paper.  But  per- 
haps he  will  be  missed  the  most,  next  to  his 
home,  by  his  friends.      Big  as  was  his  body, 

his  heart  was  bigger."  —  The  Continent. 

*      *      * 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Bancroft  Devins,  ed- 
itor and  proprietor  of  The  New  York  Ob- 
server, suddenly  ceased  to  work  and  live,  on 
August  26,  in  the  prime  of  his  vigorous,  ener- 
getic, busy,  useful  life.  We  learned  to  know 
and  love  this  good  man  during  our  Northfield 
days,  when  he  was  pastor  of  the  Broome 
Street  Tabernacle   In   New  York   City,   and 


124     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

on  the  reportorial  staff  of  The  New  York 
Tribune .  Few  men  have  come  up  to  the  chief 
editorship  of  a  great  religious  journal  with 
such  a  full,  all-round  training  as  did  Dr.  Dev- 
ins,  when  he  succeeded  his  great  editorial 
predecessors  of  The  New  York  Observer. 
And  what  an  editor  he  was!  His  life  was" 
crowded  with  incessant  activities  for  the  good 
of  others.  He  had  enormous  working  ca- 
pacity, and  covered  a  wide  range  of  good 
works.  He  was  editor,  author,  lecturer, 
preacher,  pastor,  traveler,  manager,  director, 
counselor,  '  and  at  all  times  the  friend  of  the 
poor    and    the    needy.'  " —  The    Harrisbtirg 

Evangelical. 

*      *      * 

"  The  loss  which  your  paper  has  sustained 
has  been  felt  by  the  entire  religious  press  of 
America  and  by  none  more  than  by  us  of  the 
old  Christian  Intelligencer,  whose  associations 
with  your  editors  from  the  Drs.  Prime  to  Dr. 
Devins  have  been  so  close  and  so  cordial. 
With  much  sympathy  we  are, 

"  Yours  fraternally, 
"  The  Editors  of  The  Christian  Intelligencer." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MEMORIAL   SERVICES 

The  funeral  services  were  held  on  the 
evening  of  August  28  in  the  Central  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  with  which 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Devins  were  connected.  They 
were  most  impressive  —  made  so  by  the  large 
attendance  of  friends  and  fellow-workers,  by 
the  wealth  of  the  floral  tributes  adorning  the 
casket  and  platform,  and  by  the  character  of 
the  occasion.  The  services  were  conducted 
by  the  Rev.  John  F.  Carson,  D.  D.,  pas- 
tor of  the  church  and  then  moderator  of  the 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly.  After  the 
invocation  and  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
by  President  Calvin  H.  French,  D.  D.,  of 
Huron  College,  South  Dakota,  Dr.  Carson 
said: 

"  The  solo  which  is  to  be  sung  was  very 
dear  to  the  heart  of  our  beloved  brother,  who 
long  ago  intimated  that  it  might  be  sung  on 
such  an  occasion  as  this.  After  the  render- 
ing of  that  solo  prayer  will  be  offered  by  Dr. 
W.  H.  Foulkes,  of  the  Rutgers  Church  of 
New  York." 

The  solo  sung  was  the  hymn  entitled 
"Only      Remembered,"       and      beginning: 

125 


126     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

"  Fading  away  like  the  stars  of  the  morning," 
the  words  being  by  Horatius  Bonar  and  the 
music  by  Ira  D.  Sankey.  Dr.  Foulkes  then 
led  in  prayer. 

Addresses  were  made  by  the  Rev.  Charles 
Augustus  Stoddard,  D.  D.,  the  former  ed- 
itor and  owner  of  The  New  York  Observer; 
the  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle,  superintendent  of 
the  Department  of  Church  and  Labor  of  the 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions,  and 
Dr.  Carson. 

Dr.  Stoddard  said  among  other  things : 

"  If  ever  there  was  one  who  lived  an  un- 
selfish, and  in  that  sense  Christlike  life.  Dr. 
Devins  was  that  man;  self  was  the  last  thing 
that  he  thought  of,  everybody  else  came  first, 
before  he  even  sought  his  daily  food  or  rest 
at  night. 

"  I  ought  to  say  something  of  our  relations 
together;  it  is  almost  too  sacred  now  that  he  is 
gone  —  about  some  of  our  mutual  confi- 
dences. He  was  to  me,  whose  sons  had  been 
taken  away  in  their  childhood,  as  a  son,  al- 
ways careful  of  my  needs  and  shielding  me 
as  the  years  went  on,  from  a  great  many  things 
which  would  have  been  very  trying.  There 
was  no  reason  for  his  doing  this,  ex- 
cept that  he  loved  me  and  I  loved  him.  In 
all  of  our  relations  through  these  many  years, 
I  cannot  think  of  any  occasion  when  there  was 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES         127 

a  shadow  of  misapprehension,  misunderstand- 
ing in  opinions  or  unfriendliness  in  all  of  our 
associations. 

"  Now,  some  of  you  know  something  about 
editorial  work  and  the  obstacles  of  newspaper 
life,  and  how  hard  it  is  to  come  to  a  con- 
clusion about  important  matters,  and  how 
good  men  will  differ  in  regard  to  things.  In 
sincerity  and  truth  I  can  say  that  there  was 
never  a  shadow  of  unkindness  between  Dr. 
Devins  and  myself  in  all  those  years  — 
everything  was  as  Christian  and  courteous 
and  loving  as  It  was  possible  to  be  between 
two  men.  And  I  think  the  reason  was,  aside 
from  his  unselfishness,  which  I  think  was 
born  in  him,  that  he  was  a  sincere  Christian. 
He  had  Christ  for  his  motto,  he  tried  to  live 
like  Christ  and  speak  as  Christ  would,  and  act 
as  Christ  would  have  done.  In  all  of  our  edi- 
torial relations,  difficult  times  and  years  of 
anxiety,  when  he  was  in  the  midst  of  things 
that  would  upset  a  great  many  men,  he  was 
faithful  to  all  his  promises;  he  was  forceful 
and  successful  In  all  that  he  undertook,  and 
he  did  a  great  and  good  work  through  The 
Nezv  York  Observer  during  the  years  in 
which  he  was  associated  with  it.  The  work 
that  he  did  went  out  into  this  land,  Into  all 
lands;  it  was  a  joy  and  delight  to  me  to  see 
this  young,  strong  man  going  forward  In  the 


128     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

course  which  I  knew  was  to  be  not  only  for 
his  own  advancement,  but  for  the  benefit  of 
all  connected  with  him.  He  thought  out  new 
ways  of  presenting  the  truth  —  he  said,  '  Let 
us  keep  our  standard  high,  clear,  strong  and 
bright  —  let  us  give  new  illustrations  in  all 
our  Christian  work  and  Christian  thought,' 
and  he  was  earnest  and  unflinching  to  those 
ends. 

"  When  Dr.  Devins  entered  the  service  of 
The  Observer,  he  made  one  request  of  me  — 
almost  a  condition  —  that  he  might  be  al- 
lowed to  carry  on  what  might  be  called  his 
charitable  work.  If  I  had  had  any  idea  of 
the  expansive  force  which  was  to  be  given 
to  that  simple  statement  —  '  charitable  work  ' 
—  I  should  have  said  to  him,  '  My  dear  son, 
don't  touch  The  Observer,  put  your  whole 
strength  into  charitable  work,  and  you  will 
do  more  good  than  you  can  do  here.  He  did 
both  well;  those  of  you  who  have  noticed  the 
way  in  which  he  conducted  the  paper  have 
been  satisfied  that  it  was  well  done,  and  I  am 
sure  that  those  who  have  known  anything  of 
the  many  kinds  of  charitable  work  that 
he  did,  know  how  well  they  were  done. 
Think  of  raising  $49,000  to  send  1 1,000  chil- 
dren into  country  homes.  This  he  did 
through  the  agency  of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air 
Fund,  of  which  he  was  manager,  and  which 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        129 

he  conducted  in  a  most  systematic  and  busi- 
nesslike way  —  without  any  fuss,  without  the 
loss  of  a  single  penny  to  the  work,  without 
serious  accident  or  without  any  gain  to  him- 
self, except  from  the  reward  of  doing  good. 
If  I  may  judge  by  the  sorrow  that  fills  my 
own  heart  and  of  that  which  must  come  to 
those  who  are  deeply  interested,  I  can  only 
say  with  the  loving,  earnest  prayers  of  our 
brother.  Dr.  Foulkes:  'May  these  stricken 
hearts  be  comforted  —  may  we  who  have  suf- 
fered so  suddenly  and  so  seriously  by  this  be- 
reavement know  how  to  bear  it  and  improve 
it.'  I  thought  I  was  dumb  and  could  not 
open  my  mouth,  but  I  thank  God  He  has  per- 
mitted me  to  lay  here  this  tribute  on  the 
casket  of  my  friend.      May  God  bless  and 

sanctify  this  sorrow  and  this  service  to  us." 

*      *      * 

The  tribute  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle 
was  in  substance  as  follows : 

"  I  think  I  can  understand  why  so  many 
Hope  Chapel  people  are  here  to-night.  I 
can  recall  very  distinctly,  it  seems  to  me  it 
must  be  about  twenty-three  years  ago,  when 
Dr.  Devins  came  to  Hope  Chapel  —  when 
I  was  a  boy  there. 

"  Dr.  Stoddard  spoke  of  Dr.  Devins' 
charitable  work;  he  never  spoke  of  it  as 
'  charitable  work  '  when  he  did  it  —  that  was 


I30     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

the  fine  thing  about  him.  He  did  much  more 
than  will  ever  be  known  this  side  of  glory  for 
our  people  on  the  East  Side  of  New  York.  I 
would  not  try  to  give  any  figures  because 
t'lose  that  come  to  me  in  these  moments  seem 
so  large  you  could  scarcely  believe  them,  but 
thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars  were  lit- 
erally given  out  of  his  own  pocket — some- 
times more  than  the  salary  that  was  paid  him 
—  to  the  people  among  Vv'hom  he  labored.  I 
know  what  Dr.  Devins  meant  to  the  people 
here  to-night,  and  I  know  there  is  many  an 
aching  heart  as  now  our  thoughts  turn  to  the 
friend  who  has  gone  beyond. 

"  I  am  very  glad  on  this  occasion  to  speak 
of  my  personal  appreciation  of  what  Dr. 
Devins  meant  to  me.  When  Dr.  Devins 
came  to  Hope  Chapel  I  was  a  young  fellow, 
just  about  entering  the  machine  shop  on  the 
East  Side  of  New  York  City,  not  having 
many  opportunities  of  education  and  some 
other  things  which  I  have  since  enjoyed.  I 
recall  all  that  Dr.  Devins  meant  to  me,  say 
at  the  age  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  to  twenty- 
one.  You  know  what  a  friend  means  to  a 
fellow  of  that  sort  —  Dr.  Devins  was  that 
kind.  I  was  not  afraid  to  come  to  him  with 
anything;  he  knew  more  of  the  secrets  of  my 
life  than  any  man  in  this  world.  I  told  him 
freely  because  he  was  a   friend,  because  of 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        131 

that  sympathy  which  was  so  manifest  in  every 
relationship  of  Hfe.  In  spite  of  that  strong 
frame  of  his,  he  was  tender  as  a  child;  he 
sympathized  most  lovingly,  for  he  himself 
had  passed  through  those  afflictions  —  he  was 
kin  to  all  men.  I  remember  well  how  as  a 
boy  he  led  me  through  the  Christian  En- 
deavor Society,  the  Sunday-school  and 
through  the  organizations  of  Hope  Chapel. 

"  When  I  felt  I  must  study  for  the  min- 
istry, even  though  I  was  a  member  of  another 
church  at  that  time  in  another  city,  I  went 
to  Dr.  Devins  and  told  him  that  I  wanted 
to  study  for  the  ministry.  It  was  Dr.  Dev- 
ins who  helped  me  to  enter  the  Moody  School 
in  Chicago,  and  I  recall  also  that  Dr.  Devins 
loaned  me  the  fare  to  go  to  Chicago  to  be- 
gin my  work  of  preparation  for  the  Gospel 
ministry  when  so  few  other  people  thought  I 
would  ever  amount  to  anything  in  the  work  of 
Jesus  Christ;  it  was  Dr.  Devins  that  helped 
me  and  pushed  me  forward  and  encouraged 
me  to  go  on  in  the  way  I  felt  God  had  called 
me. 

"  When  Dr.  Devins  went  to  The  New 
York  Observer  and  I  was  called  from  a  little 
church  in  Minneapolis  to  succeed  him  at  Hope 
Chapel  I  felt  honored,  for  during  all  those 
early  days  it  was  Dr.  Devins  who  gave  me 
my  ideal  for  social  service.     I  do  not  hesitate 


132     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

to  say  that  in  my  ministry  to  the  common 
people  during  the  twelve  years,  the  forma- 
tive period  of  my  life,  that  it  was  Dr.  Devins 
who  gave  me  that  ideal,  through  his  own 
personal  work  and  his  conversation  and  the 
many  things  that  he  wrote  in  The  Observer 
and  elsewhere.  There  was  no  one  man  who 
gave  me  larger  vision  of  social  service  than 
Dr.  Devins. 

"  As  a  pastor,  I  remember  the  first  Sun- 
day that  I  came  to  the  Chapel  Dr.  Devins 
came  up  to  me  and  said:  '  Now,  Mr.  Stelzle, 
if  you  want  me  to  go  away  from  here,  I  will 
go;  '  he  knew  all  of  the  possible  embarrass- 
ment which  he  might  be  to  me  a  young  man 
coming  to  New  York  to  a  church  of  which 
he  had  been  the  pastor.  I  said  to  him :  '  No, 
never,  stay  here  with  me.'  Dr.  Devins  and 
his  family  came  for  two  years  or  more  to  the 
chapel  where  I  went  as  a  boy;  he  came  faith- 
fully every  Sunday  morning,  whereas  he 
might  have  gone  to  an  uptown  church  —  it 
would  have  been  far  more  comfortable,  and 
the  preaching  would  have  been  better  there, 
but  instead  he  sat  as  my  friend  and  my  in- 
spirer  as  I  preached  to  the  people  in  Hope 
Chapel.  There  are  other  things  of  which  I 
might  speak,  but  I  know  what  Dr.  Devins 
means  to  you,  my  friends,  as  you  know  what 
he  has  meant  to  me." 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        133 

We  give  the  tribute  of  the  Rev.  John  F. 
Carson,  D.  D.,  in  full: 

"  John  Bancroft  Devins  —  that  is  a  name 
honored  in  Presbyterianism  as  but  few  names 
are  honored,  honored  throughout  the  Chris- 
tian Church  and  honored  in  all  the  circles  of 
life  where  he  is  known. 

"  As  I  think  of  Dr.  Devins  to-night,  let- 
ting my  mind  go  back  over  the  years  in  which 
it  was  our  privilege  to  have  such  close  and  in- 
timate fellowship,  I  think  I  can  sum  it  up  in 
a  few  sentences.  He  was  a  man  of  untiring 
energy,  an  energy  that  was  devoted  and  con- 
secrated to  definite  issues;  he  was  a  ceaseless 
worker,  inspired  by  a  holy  ambition  to  serve 
His  Master.  When  he  determined  upon  a 
college  course,  he  entered  the  New  York  Uni- 
versity, from  which  he  graduated  and  as  a 
writer  on  the  newspaper  he  provided  for  him- 
self the  means  which  made  possible  his  uni- 
versity and  theological  education.  Graduat- 
ing from  Union  Seminary,  he  had  with  him 
that  splendid  consciousness  which  comes  to  a 
man  who  has  made  his  own  way  by  honor- 
able means.  He  sought  no  easy  place  of 
service,  but  went  yonder  to  Hope  Chapel, 
called  as  he  knew  of  God,  into  the  service  of 
those  to  whom  the  Master  would  bid  him  al- 
most specially  to  preach.  From  Hope 
Chapel  he  went  to  Broome  Street  Tabernacle, 


134    JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

putting  his  life  at  the  service  of  the  people. 
To-night,  as  Dr.  Stoddard  has  said,  we,  who 
knew  of  his  Christlike  ministry,  have  come 
here  to  call  him  blessed. 

"  He  enters  the  editorial  office,  but  he  is 
not  content  to  spend  his  time  and  energy  in 
the  tasks,  however  arduous  they  may  be,  of 
the  editor's  position.  Looking  out  upon  the 
great  city  of  New  York  with  its  teeming  mil- 
lions of  children,  his  heart  and  his  thought 
go  out  to  them,  and  he  puts  himself  back  of 
that  Fresh  Air  Fund  that  makes  possible  a 
holiday  this  year  for  about  eleven  thousand 
children  of  the  poor.  My  friends,  if  the 
Tribune  Fund  has  done  a  service  for  the  chil- 
dren of  New  York  City,  it  has  done  it  be- 
cause John  B.  Devins  largely  made  it  pos- 
sible. 

"  This  morning  I  took  up  the  latest  num- 
ber of  The  New  York  Observer,  I  read 
through  its  pages  —  I  read  its  editorials  and 
then  I  came  to  the  report  of  this  year's  work 
of  the  Fresh  Air  Fund.  It  was  only  last 
Wednesday  that  I  received  a  letter  from  our 
brother,  typewritten  as  Dr.  Stoddard  said 
his  was,  but  after  he  had  signed  it,  in  his  own 
handwriting  he  added  this  postscript:  'I 
have  had  a  great  time  this  summer  with  our 
children.'  That  was  like  John  B.  Devins, 
not  the  children  of  New  York,  oh,  not  such 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        135 

a  far  reach  as  that,  but '  our  children.'  That 
Is  the  man  all  through;  he  Identified  him- 
self with  the  Interests  in  which  he  was  en- 
gaged. As  I  came  to  the  close  of  that  re- 
port, I  read  this  sentence:  '  If  anything  goes 
wrong  and  the  children  do  not  reach  the  train 
—  but  things  do  not  go  wrong  and  the  train 
Is  not  missed.'  My  friends,  the  things  did 
not  go  wrong  and  the  train  was  not  missed, 
because  there  was  a  man  there,  who  put  every 
atom  of  his  strength  and  the  whole  range 
of  his  thought  and  the  full  measure  of  his 
love  into  the  service  for  '  our  children.'  He 
was  a  true  Greatheart. 

'*  In  a  letter  which  I  received  from  him 
when  I  was  at  Northfield,  not  more  than  two 
weeks  ago,  he  wrote  me  of  the  large  work  of 
this  Fresh  Air  Fund  and  the  burden  of  it, 
but  also  the  joy  In  knowing  that  there  were 
children  receiving  an  outing  who  would  not 
were  it  not  for  the  fund.  A  man  of  untiring 
energy,  John  Bancroft  Devins,  was  a  man 
of  deep  sympathy,  but  his  sympathy  was  not 
sentimental.  There  was  nothing  of  that 
about  this  world  man,  this  big  man,  this  man 
of  giant  strength  —  nothing  that  was  senti- 
mental In  the  sense  of  being  effervescent,  but 
no  one  came  into  close  touch  with  him  with- 
out knowing  that  he  had  a  heart  as  big  as  his 
body.      Dr.  Stoddard  has  told  us  there  was 


136     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

not  an  atom  of  selfishness  in  the  whole  big 
make  up  of  the  man, 

"  My  relation  with  him  for  the  past  few 
years  has  been  that  of  pastor;  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  was  my  pastor  or  I  was  his,  but 
I  do  know  that  no  man  ever  had  a  brother 
who  loved  him  as  John  B.  Devins  loved  me, 
and  I  loved  him  in  return.    As  I  came  into  the 
pulpit  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  it  got  to  be  a 
habit  for  me  to  look  down  into  the  center 
aisle  to  see  if  he  was  there,  for  I  knew  that 
if  he  were  there,  somehow  the  sermon  was 
going  to  go.     As  I  looked  down,  and  saw  in 
the  play  of  his  face  responsiveness  that  was 
pictured  there,  I  felt  the  chord  and  bond  of 
sympathy  and  got  the  inspiration  that  made 
it  possible  —  I  was  going  to  say,  to  preach. 
Oh,  my  brethren  in  the  ministry,  and  there 
are  many  of  you  I  see  here  to-night,  here  was 
a  man  who  knew  a  pastor's  heart  and  life, 
and  if  ever  man  had  a  friend  who  loved  to 
have  him  do  his  best  and  work  for  results, 
I  had  it  in  this  beloved  brother.     He  was  a 
faithful  friend,  and  if  at  times  there  would 
be  some  things  in  the  church  that  were  a  lit- 
tle burdensome,  Dr.  Devins  would  come  up 
and  put  his  arms  around  me  and  say,  '  It  is 
all  right,  it  will  come  out  all  right.'     Just  a 
little  while  ago  I  got  a  little  pessimistic,  and 
you  will  remember  at  the  close   of  a  com- 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES         137 

munion  Sabbath  I  was  a  little  sad  because 
there  were  not  more  results  in  the  lives  of  the 
people.  After  the  service,  he  led  me  into 
the  side  room  and  talked  it  all  out  and  I  lost 
my  pessimism  in  the  buoyancy  and  the  op- 
timism of  this  man's  soul  —  that  is  friendship 
—  and  he  was  a  friend.  But  I  am  not  sor- 
rowing to-night,  I  have  not  lost  him,  you  have 
not  lost  him.  I  shall  not  take  time  to  speak 
of  him  in  his  Christian  faith;  it  was  deep  as 
his  experiences  were  deep  —  he  knew  his 
God  and  his  Saviour. 

"  I  hold  here  a  little  hymn  which  he  com- 
posed some  years  ago,  the  music  of  which  is 
written  by  our  sainted  Ira  D.  Sankey.  In 
the  fourth  verse  of  this  hymn  he  speaks  of  the 
thought,  '  We  would  see  Jesus  —  We  would 
hear  Jesus  —  We  would  serve  Jesus  ' —  then 
he  combines  them  all  into  this  last  line  — 
'  Seeing,  hearing,  learning,  speaking,'  but 
there  it  does  not  end,  then  the  man  of  it  comes 
in. 

"'Serving  daily,  faithfully; 

May  men  see  in  us,  Thy  brethren, 
All  that  Thou  wouldst  have  us  be.' 

"  That  was  his  one  great  thought  as  a 
Christian  man  —  a  reflection  of  the  life  of 
Christ  within.  He  lived  a  very  large  life, 
this  man  of  God,  and  it  worked  itself  out  in 


138     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

so  varied  a  service  —  a  pastor,  a  preacher 
and  an  editor,  a  traveler  —  an  author,  a  phi- 
lanthropist. Let  us  underscore  that  last 
word,  a  philanthropist;  no,  he  did  not  give 
away  large  sums  of  money —  if  he  had  it,  he 
would  have  given  it  all  away,  but  he  gave 
himself  away  to  the  services  of  the  needy.  I 
do  not  think  he  only  is  a  philanthropist  who 
has  large  wealth  to  distribute;  fine  and 
glorious  as  that  is,  it  is  utterly  insignificant 
when  compared  with  the  splendid  service  of 
this  man,  who  gave  himself  so  devotedly  to 
the  cause  of  the  needy  and  the  suffering,  any- 
where, everywhere,  and  so  he  came  to  be 
honored  by  all  men.  Institutions  of  learn- 
ing honored  him,  his  own  alma  mater,  the 
University  of  New  York,  gave  him  a  degree. 
Center  College  in  Kentucky  gave  him  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Divinity  —  Huron  College 
in  South  Dakota  gave  him  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Laws — why?  Because  his  life  and 
ministry  had  touched  in  knowledge  at  least 
all  these  institutions,  and  they  loved  to  put 
on  him  their  distinction  because  it  brought  to 
them  distinction  and  honor.  I  have  known 
men,  I  have  come  into  close  touch  with  men 
in  the  twenty-six  years  that  I  have  lived  and 
labored  in  this  Greater  City  of  New  York, 
and  there  have  been  but  few  men  whom  I 
would  place  side  by  side  with  this  big,  brainy, 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        139 


Jesus,  Saviour,  We  Would  See  Thee. 

"  "We  would  see  Jesus."— John  12 :  21. 
Rev.  John  Bancroft  Devins.  Iba  D.  Sanket. 


;^iw- 


*i=P^ 


I 


1.  Je-sns,  Sav-iour,  we  would  see  Thee,  Lift-ed  high     up  -  on  the    tree; 

2.  Je-sus,  Teacher  we  would  hear  Thee,  Hear  Thy  voice  and  it     a  -  lone: 

3.  Je-sus,  Master,  we  would  serve  Thee,  Fill  each  day  with  lov-ing  deeds; 

4.  Seeing,  hearing,  learning,  speaking,  Serving  dai  -  ly,   faith  -  ful  -  ly; 


'& 


=P=at: 


-1-1 — >=. 


)c£:|itz=tc: 


m- 


3i^=E 


=t 


m^ 


r 


T 


:«U--^=^; 


Bear-ing  there  our  sins  and    sor-rows.  Set-ting    ns       for-ev-er     free. 
Learn  the  lessons  Thou  wouldst  teach  us.  Speak  the  words  that  Thou  wilt  own. 
Comfort  those  whose  hearts  are  weary.  Like  Thy-self  sup-ply  their  needs. 
May  men  see    in     us.   Thy  brethren,  All  that  Thou  wouldst  have  us  be. 


Chorus 


_^HORL^_^  ^  ^.^y J_^_.j^.^uj>-  .     I  /  ,^-;  ^.U4^ 


We  would  see  Jesus,  we  would  see  Jesus;  He  is  our  Saviour,  and  glorious  King; 


--♦-  •-  -•-•-•-*-•-•»-  N 


icrninra 


gg£gEg^g^;f^p--^l 


— ' Ul t^^M 1 


Him  would  we  follow,  thro'  sunshine  and  shadow;  How  and  forever  His  praises  will 
^^-«-;*  ,ff  -  -  -  -  -  - 


•5! 


^:^=5 


Copyright,  1902,  by  The  Biglow  &  Main  Co.    Used  by  per. 


I40     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

great-hearted,  superb  and  loving  man  —  John 
Bancroft  Devins.  He  has  entered  into  glory 
—  fifty-five  years  old,  cut  off  in  the  midst  of 
his  day  —  oh !  what  a  poor  thing  that  would 
be  to  say.  If  it  is  true  we  live  in  deeds, 
what  a  long  stretch  of  life  this  man  had. 
His  physician  said  on  Saturday  morning,  '  He 
has  just  worked  himself  out' — just  worked 
himself  out  —  that  is  what  he  wanted  to  do, 
and  he  wanted  to  die  just  as  he  did  die  —  in 
the  midst  of  his  labors. 

"  There  are  just  two  passages  of  Scripture 
that  I  would  quote  with  reference  to  him 
First,  '  He  went  about  doing  good  '  —  the 
other,  that  passage  which  the  Master  spoke 
when  He  was  on  the  earth,  which,  oh,  I  be- 
lieve, I  know  that  He  spoke  to  this  ransomed 
spirit  when  it  came  into  His  presence  —  '  In- 
asmuch as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me.'  He  went  into  that  glory,  tlie 
finest,  the  highest,  the  greatest  glory  that  can 
come  to  a  redeemed  spirit  —  Jesus  knew 
what  he  was  talking  about  —  the  glory  that 
comes  to  a  life  that  loses  itself  in  the  service 
of  humanity. 

"  My  beloved  friends,  he  lives  to-night  and 
in  his  fellowship  we  will  continue  to  live. 
May  God  grant  unto  us  to  follow  him  as  he 
always  followed  Christ  Jesus,  and  grant  unto 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        141 

these  beloved  ones  and  Immediate  fellow- 
workers  in  service,  the  consolation  of  His 
grace  and  His  love." 

The  services  closed  with  the  benediction  by 
Dr.  Stoddard. 

A  public  memorial  service  in  memory  of 
Dr.  Devins  was  held  in  the  Central  Presby- 
terian Church  of  New  York  City  on  the  after- 
noon of  Sunday  October  8,  191 1.  On  the 
pulpit  platform  were  the  Rev.  George  Alex- 
ander, D.  D.,  moderator  of  the  Presbytery 
of  New  York;  the  Rev.  Jesse  F.  Forbes,  D. 
D.,  stated  clerk  of  the  Presbytery;  the  Rev. 
David  G.  Wylie,  D.  D.,  the  Rev.  Henry 
Mottet,  D.  D.,  rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Communion,  and  the  Rev.  Wilton- 
Merle  Smith,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  Central 
Church. 

Dr.  Forbes  led  the  devotional  exercises 
and  read  a  tribute  to  Dr.  Devins  written  by 
the  Rev.  Charles  Augustus  Stoddard,  D.  D., 
and  Dr.  Wylie  read  a  tribute  from  Dr.  Car- 
son, the  moderator  of  the  General  Assem.bly. 

Mr.  James  Yereance,  an  elder  in  the  Cen- 
tral Church,  read  letters  from  John  E.  Par- 
sons, Jacob  A.  Riis  and  the  Rev.  Henry  T. 
McEwen,  D.  D.,  of  Amsterdam,  N.  Y.  Dr. 
Alexander  spoke  with  deep  feeling  of  Dr. 
Devins  as  a  Presbyter  and  emphasized 
those  qualities  of  deep  sympathy  and  unflinch- 


142     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

ing  loyalty  to  duty  that  characterized  him, 
both  as  editor  and  pastor,  in  the  midst  of 
mountainous  responsibilities.  He  also  told 
of  Dr.  Devins'  personal  life  and  showed  how 
his  experiences  had  fitted  him  as  few  men  are 
prepared,  to  do  a  work  characterized  by  lov- 
ing insight  into  the  needs  of  humanity. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Mottet,  D.  D.,  said  in 
part: 

"  Very  judiciously  and  wisely  have  the  va- 
rious aspects  of  the  late  Dr.  Devins'  life  been 
assigned  to  different  friends,  in  the  conscious- 
ness that  to-day  and  here  each  of  these 
friends  would  present  one  of  the  many  and 
rare  characteristics  which  explained  all  the 
nobility  and  the  richness  of  that  rare  life. 
It  is  my  privilege  to  speak  a  word  bear- 
ing upon  his  relation  to  the  Tribune  Fresh 
Air  Work.  His  predecessor  had  brought 
this  to  a  notable  state  of  usefulness;  and 
when  he  was  taken  away,  the  question  passed 
from  lip  to  lip  was,  whether  the  man  was 
living  who  possessed  the  ability  and  courage 
to  take  up  so  heavy  a  burden.  When  the  call 
came  to  Dr.  Devins  and  he  had  accepted,  he 
realized  absolutely  that  the  call  came  from 
his  Master,  that  the  work  was  for  his 
Master,  and  that  the  thousands  and  ten  thou- 
sands of  women  and  children  and  convales- 
cents whom  this  work  could  and  must  reach 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        143 

were  all  of  them  the  Master's  care.  He  was 
confident  that  He  who  called  him  would  also 
stand  by  him.  He  had  learned  practically 
the  chiefest  of  all  lessons  that  the  man  who 
wholly  forgets  self  in  his  care  for  others  be- 
comes ever  the  special  care  of  his  Father  in 
Heaven. 

"  Dr.  Devins  was  wonderfully  blessed  and 
prospered  in  this  work  in  which  he  had  been 
engaged  not  quite  five  brief  years. 

"  He  gave  special  attention  to  the  increase 
of  financial  aid,  mindful  that  the  greater  the 
pecuniary  resource,  the  larger  the  good  to  be 
accomplished.  He  did  not  depend  wholly  on 
The  Tribune  subscribers.  He  exercised  the 
courage  to  make  personal  presentation  of  the 
cause  to  many  who  could  and  who  did  assist 
with  exceptionally  large  contributions. 

"  Under  him  were  developed  the  special 
home  for  boys,  also  one  for  girls,  and  a  new, 
separate  home  for  those  of  tubercular  tend- 
ency—  who  lived  all  day  and  slept  all  night 
in  the  open. 

"  One  of  the  twelve  separate  establish- 
ments he  enlarged  so  that  instead  of  one  hun- 
dred it  now  houses  two  hundred  children. 
Another  of  the  homes  he  doubled  in  size  so 
that  now  it  welcomes  and  provides  comfort 
for  one  hundred  guests. 

"  He  created  another  feature  of  boundless 


144     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

blessing  —  a  home  for  girls  from  twelve  to 
sixteen  years  of  age. 

"  He  collected  this  season  a  little  short  of 
$49,000,  and  he  cared  for  almost  11,000 
women  and  children. 

"  All  this  is  only  the  most  meager  out- 
line; but  the  outline  does  not  represent  the 
finest,  the  most  uplifting  and  exalted  part  of 
that  great  man's  work.  He  did  all  this  for 
love  of  God  and  love  of  his  fellows.  He 
sought  —  he  lived  to  minister  to  men's  bodies, 
for  the  opportunity  so  presented  of  lifting 
them   into   everlasting   fellowship   with   God 

their  Father. 

*      *      * 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Wilton-Merle  Smith  said  in 
part: — 

"  It  is  said  that  Francis  Xavier,  greatly 
fatigued  with  his  labors,  once  said  to  his  at- 
tendant: 'Allow  no  one  to  awaken  me'; 
after  a  little  he  came  back  to  the  attendant 
and  said:  '  If  a  child  comes,  you  may  awaken 


me.' 


"  It  was  the  appeal  of  the  child  to  the 
heart  of  John  Devins  that  marked  the  true 
nobility  of  his  character.  A  little  child  could 
lead  him  anywhere.  In  physical  proportions 
he  was  great,  but  his  heart  was  a  great  den,l 
bigger.  I  have  seldom  known  a  man  who 
had  such  a  heart, 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        145 

*'  John  Devins  was  always  open-hearted  to 
the  cry  of  a  child,  always  open-hearted  to  the 
cry  of  any  need.  I  think  that  the  poem  by 
Sam  Walter  Foss  would  be  a  suitable  epitaph 
for  the  tombstone  of  John  Devins : 

"  Let  me  live  in  my  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 
Where  the  race  of  men  go  by; 
They  are  good,  they  are  bad,  they  are  weak,  they 
are  strong, 
Wise,  foolish  —  and  so  am  I. 
Then  why  should  I  sit  in  the  scorner's  seat. 

Or  hurl  the  cynic's  ban? 
Let  me  live  in  my  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 
And  be  a  friend  to  man." 

That  was  John  Devins  —  more  wonder- 
fully did  he  exemplify  the  great-hearted 
friendliness  for  human  beings  than  any  man 
In  our  Presbytery,  I  venture  to  say. 

"  You  remember  that  other  poem,  when 
the  angel  came  to  Abou  Ben  Adhem,  who 
had  asked:  'Write  me  as  one  that  loved 
his  fellowman,'  And  lo  !  Ben  Adhem's  name 
led  all  the  rest!  It  was  even  so  with  our 
dear  friend. 

"  You  will  go  far  to  find  a  more  beautiful 
life  than  the  life  which  Is  held  In  retrospect 
to-day.  He  was  open  to  every  appeal  of 
need,  with  a  heart  gentle  as  a  woman,  and 


146     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

yet  not  that  alone,  with  courage  inflexible  — 
a  great,  strong,  nobly  built  man.  His  was 
a  life  that  had  worked  its  way  in  the  struggle 
against  obstacles,  with  a  courage  which 
would  never  say  die.  In  his  earlier  days, 
when  a  boy,  he  took  a  chance  and  worked  out 
his  own  education.  He  not  only  had  gentle- 
ness and  lovableness  of  heart,  but  the  strong, 
inflexible  character  of  manhood.  He  bore 
the  great  rugged  features  of  strength  and 
courage  and  manhood  that  distinguished  him 
to  the  very  end  of  his  days. 

"  I  love  to  think  of  my  own  intimacy  with 
John  Devins,  and  I  think  the  most  intimate 
part  of  it  was  in  those  days  at  Northfield, 
when  as  a  Presbytery  we  went  to  the  Con- 
ference and  learned  to  look  each  other  in 
the  face  after  days  of  distress  and  contro- 
versy. I  think  in  those  days  of  intimacy 
with  John  Devins  these  two  things  stood  out 
in  the  man :  the  lovable  gentleness  and  the 
strong  inflexible  courage.  No  one  could  turn 
him  from  the  path  that  he  thought  to  be 
right. 

"  As  Dr.  McEwen  wrote,  '  There  never 
was  a  false  note  In  anything  which  he  said.' 

"  There  Is  a  tradition  of  the  early  Church, 
that  if  one  of  the  Christian  leaders  died,  some 
friend  stepped  forward  and  was  baptized  and 


MEMORIAL  SERVICES        147 

re-admitted  into  the  Church  under  the  name  of 
the  one  who  had  gone,  with  the  thought  that 
thus  being  baptized,  he  might  be  baptized  into 
his  spirit  to  carry  on  the  work  and  live  the 
life  of  the  one  who  had  gone.  Now  that  Dr. 
Devins  has  passed  on,  there  is  a  call  for  some 
of  us  to  be  baptized,  baptized  with  the  spirit 
of  his  wide  and  almost  unlimited  philan- 
thropy, baptized  into  the  spirit  of  brother- 
hood and  love  for  the  friendless  that  so  char- 
acterized his  life  —  to  be  baptized  in  the 
spirit  of  God  and  of  the  work  of  Christ  Jesus 
which  so  distinguished  his  character." 

At  Hope  Chapel,  339  East  Fourth  Street, 
New  York,  a  memorial  service  for  Dr.  Dev- 
ins, was  also  held  Thursday,  October  19.  Dr. 
Devins  was  pastor  of  Hope  Chapel  for  ten 
years  and  the  people  who  worshiped  there 
under  his  leadership  gathered  to  add  their 
tribute  of  esteem  and  love.  Several  earnest 
addresses  were  given  by  former  fellow-work- 
ers who  had  labored  with  Dr.  Devins  on  the 
East  Side. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS 

Among  other  organizations,  the  following, 
with  which  Dr.  Devlns  was  Identified  either 
as  a  manager,  director  or  active  worker, 
passed  resolutions  of  sorrow,  appreciation 
and  sympathy:  The  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church;  the  New  York  Pres- 
bytery; the  New  York  Tribune  Fresh  Air 
Fund;  the  Presbyterian  Union  of  New  York; 
the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions; 
the  Board  of  Counselors  of  the  American  Fe- 
male Guardian  Society,  the  Executive  Council 
and  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  same ;  the 
Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ; 
the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition 
of  the  Poor;  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
New  York  State  Hospital  for  Incipient  Pul- 
monary Tuberculosis;  the  American  Seamen's 
Friend  Society;  the  Tent  Evangel  Committee 
of  New  York;  the  Twenty-third  Street  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  New  York  City;  the 
Seventh  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  York 
City,  and  the  Negro  Fresh  Air  Fund. 
These  minutes  contain  much  of  significance 
but  cannot  be  reproduced  In  this  volume. 
The    minute    adopted    by    the    Presbyterian 

148 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     149 

General  Assembly  was  prepared  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Richard  S.  Holmes  of  Philadelphia,  who 
has  since  died,  and  was  as  follows: 

"  The  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fourth 
General  Assembly  in  an  hour  of  solemn  mem- 
ory of  those  servants  of  God,  ministers  of  our 
Church,  who  have  been  taken  from  our  num- 
ber during  the  past  year,  adopts  the  follow- 
ing Memorial  Minute  with  reference  to  the 
life  and  services  of  the  late  John  Bancroft 
Devins,  D.  D.,  editor  of  the  New  York  Ob- 
server, who  for  twenty-eight  years  faithfully 
and  efficiently  reported  the  proceedings  of 
the  Assembly. 

Resolved,  That  the  General  Assembly 
puts  on  record  its  high  appreciation  of  the 
late  John  Bancroft  Devins,  D.  D.,  pastor, 
journalist  and  Christian  gentleman,  who  gave 
the  whole  of  a  singularly  unselfish  life  to  the 
cause  of  Christ.  His  service  to  the  Church, 
to  the  neglected  children  of  the  poor  in  New 
York,  and  to  the  interests  of  truth,  are 
worthy  of  a  praise  we  cannot  speak,  and  we 
offer  to  Mrs.  Devins  and  her  bereaved  circle 
the  sympathy  of  a  Church  that  had  learned 
to  love  and  prize  Dr.  Devins,  not  only  for 
what  he  was,  but  for  what  he  strove  to  be." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air 
Fund  Aid  Society,  held  February  2,  19 12,  the 
following  minute  was  unanimously  adopted: 


I50     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

"  The  Rev.  John  Bancroft  Devins,  D.  D., 
LL.  D.,  manager  of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air 
Fund  Aid  Society  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
closed  his  life  of  usefulness  in  the  fifty-fifth 
year  of  his  age  on  August  26,  191 1,  to  the 
great  loss  of  the  Society  and  the  grief  of  its 
Trustees,  with  whom  he  had  been  associated 
since  1907. 

His  activities  and  interests  reached  round 
the  globe  and  touched  everywhere  the  hearts 
of  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions.  Nothing 
that  concerned  the  betterment  of  his  fellow 
man  failed  to  attract  his  sympathy,  which 
did  not  spend  itself  in  mere  sentiment,  but 
found  expression  in  active  and  efficient  help- 
fulness. 

His  life  upon  earth  is  ended,  but  its  record 
and  remembrance  will  continue  long  to  ex- 
cite the  gratitude  of  the  multitudes  whom  he 
helped  and  to  keep  alive  the  high  regard  of 
those  with  whom  he  cooperated  in  good  works. 

Such  a  record  will  be  the  special  inspira- 
tion of  his  family,  to  whom  the  Trustees  of 
the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund  Aid  Society  re- 
spectfully extend  their  sympathy. 

By  direction  of  the  Board." 

(Signed)  Whitelaw  Reid, 

President. 
(Signed)  E.  L.  Rossiter, 

Secretary. 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     151 

The  Presbyterian  Union  of  New  York, 
by  its  Executive  Committee,  unanimously 
adopted  the  following  minute  "  in  grateful 
appreciation  of  the  efficient  services  of  our 
late  secretary  and  treasurer,  the  Rev.  John 
Bancroft  Devins,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  who  was 
called  to  his  rest  and  reward  on  August  26, 
after  but  two  days'  Illness." 

"  Dr.  Devins  was  born  In  this  city  on  Sep- 
tember 26,  1856;  received  his  early  educa- 
tion In  Camden,  N.  Y.,  and  at  Elizabeth,  N. 
J.,  worked  his  way  through  college  as  a  re- 
porter on  The  Tribune;  graduated  from  New 
York  University  In  1882  and  from  The 
Union  Theological  Seminary  In  1887;  li- 
censed by  New  York  Presbytery,  May,  1887; 
ordained  June,  1888;  pastor  of  Hope  Chapel, 
1888;  in  1901  he  took  charge  of  the  English 
work  of  the  Broome  Street  Tabernacle.  In 
1898  he  became  managing  editor  of  The 
New  York  Observer,  and  in  May,  1905,  Its 
proprietor.  In  1907  he  became  also  man- 
ager of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund.  The 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  conferred 
upon  him  by  Center  College,  Danville,  Ky., 
In  June,  1901;  that  of  M.  A.,  by  his  Alma 
Mater  In  1903,  and  that  of  Doctor  of  Laws 
by  Huron  College  in  1909. 

His  published  works  are  '  An  Observer  in 
the    Philippines,'    '  On    the    Way    to    Hwal 


152     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Yuen '  and  '  The  Classic  Mediterranean.' 
He  was  also  the  author  of  the  hymn,  '  Jesus 
Saviour,  We  Would  See  Thee.' 

Dr.  Devins  was  an  indefatigable  worker, 
and  withal  preserved  a  sweet  Christian  spirit, 
which  led  him  to  become  to  his  brethren 
'  John  the  Beloved.' 

We  shall  greatly  miss  him  and  his  pains- 
taking work  that  contributed  largely  to  the 
success  of  the  Union  in  recent  years. 

The  whole  Church  will  miss  him  and  his 
efficient  services  by  voice  and  pen ;  the  i  i,ooo 
poor  children  of  the  tenements  who  were  an- 
nually sent  to  the  country  by  him  as  manager 
of  the  Tribune  Fresh  Air  Fund  are  weeping 
for  him,  and  the  many  societies  with  which  he 
was  identified  will  feel  his  loss. 

He  realized  his  cherished  wish  that  he 
'  die  in  the  harness,'  and  his  transition  from 
an  overworked  brain  and  heart  to  the  rest 
and  joy  of  the  Master's  presence  was  sud- 
den and  unexpected. 

We  shall  not  forget  his  unobtrusive  Chris- 
tion  character,  his  unselfish  devotion,  his  sin- 
cere consecration  and  his  conspicuous  loyalty 
in  connection  with  every  branch  of  church  or 
philanthropic  work  with  which  he  associated 
himself.  We  thank  God  for  Dr.  Devins  and 
the  splendid  work  He  wrought  in  him  and  by 
him. 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     153 

We  would  not  bring  him  back;  but  our 
hearts  go  out  in  loving  sympathy  to  the  de- 
voted wife  and  step-son  who  remain,  and 
with  them  we  say  of  our  friend: 

Good-night,  beloved;  we  will  meet  you  in 
the  morning." 

James  Yereance 
Silas  F.  Hallock 
Fleming  H.  Revell 
Committee  on  Minute. 

Sept.  15,  19 II. 

Only  a  few  extracts  can  be  given  from  the 
letters  that  have  poured  in  upon  Mrs.  Devins 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  as  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Dr.  Devins  traveled  to  those  in  dis- 
tant lands  where  his  occasional  presence  and 
help  had  meant  so  much  to  toilers  in  lone- 
liness and  obscurity  as  well  as  from  the  heart 
of  the  great  city  where  he  lived  and  labored. 
One  or  two  however  must  be  given  at  length : 

"  Dr.  Devins'  translation  is  a  calamity  to 

our    Church     at    this    juncture.      His     wise 

course  in  the  Observer  has  done  much  to  help 

to  peace  and  rest." 

*      *      * 

"  I  want  to  say  first  that  while  I  sorrow,  I 
cannot  feel  one  regret  for  Dr.  Devins.  He 
lived  a  wonderful,  a  glorious  life,  and  it 
ended  most  enviably — a  brief  transit  from 
fullness  of  vigor  and  service  to  fullness  of 


154     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

eternal  life  and  perfect  service.  His  life  was 
not  brief.  He  lived,  really  lived,  at  least 
the  lives  of  five  or  six  ordinarily  successful 
men.  We  do  not  regret  that  our  Lord  lived 
on  earth  so  many  years  less  than  Dr.  Devlns 
did;  nor  that  he  lived  on  earth  so  many  years 
less  than  some  of  us  are  living.  Thousands 
of  good  and  successful  men  work  on  to  sev- 
enty, eighty,  ninety  years,  without  doing  a 
hundredth  part  the  good  that  Dr.  Devlns  did. 
He  is  living  on  earth  to-day  In  thousands  of 
characters  made  happier,  better,  more  use- 
ful because  he  lived  —  because  he  lived  they 
live  also. 

Possibly,  I  do  not  know,  he  might  have 
been  with  us  yet  many  years  if  it  had  been 
possible  for  him  to  think  chiefly  of  himself, 
to  forget  his  passion  for  others  in  taking 
care  of  his  health,  but  who  could  wish  it  so? 
The  very  power  of  his  passion  to  work  for 
the  world  gave  him  power  not  otherwise  pos- 
sible over  others,  other  events,  other  insti- 
tutions. Sacrifice  is  as  essential  to  great  serv- 
ice as  Calvary  is  to  the  salvation  of  the 
world.  Dr.  Devlns,  forgetting  his  work  in 
taking  care  of  himself,  would  have  been  an- 
other man  than  he  was,  one  we  do  not  know 
when  we  think  of  him,  not  the  man  who 
molded  men  and  shaped  affairs  and  always 
for  the  divine  kingdom.     Suppose  he  had  de- 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     155 

dined  the  Fresh  Air  Fund  Work  this  year, 
would  it  have  been  better  for  him  to  stay 
here  longer,  doing  unspeakably  less,  than  it 
is  for  him  to  go  with  the  love  and  gratitude 
of  the  seven  or  eight  thousand  poor  little  ones 
he  sent  into  God's  fields  this  summer?  God's 
acre  where  you  will  lay  the  worn-out,  splendid 
machine  to  rest  after  its  fully  doing  its  glo- 
rious work  in  the  world,  will  be  God's  acre 
indeed  to  one  who  rests  there  after  leading 
the  poor  children,  His  little  ones,  out  into 
the  open  acres  of  God's  world  commonly 
closed  to  them.  I  say  it  is  a  shining  and  glo- 
rious close  to  a  life  to  which  also  those  great 
adjectives  belong.      I  say  he  is  enviable. 

'  The  world  will  be  so  much  poorer  for 
his  going,'  we  say  in  such  a  case.  Will  it? 
I  cannot  feel  sure  it  will.  After  the  tidings 
came  this  morning,  I  went  out  of  doors  and 
gave  my  mind  leave  to  follow  its  own  devices 
for  an  hour  or  more.  It  went  back  over 
the  wonderful  years,  made  wonderful  so 
largely  by  the  presence  of  Dr.  Devins  in 
them.  Seen  in  the  light  that  floods  out  of 
the  disciple's  grave,  each  incident  took  new 
meaning  and  power.  The  meditation  of  the 
hour  —  and  it  will  be  so  of  many  future  hours 
—  found  a  mordant  in  the  sorrowful  news  to 
fix  it  forever  deeply  in  mind,  heart,  character. 
The  death  of  such  a  man,  like  the  death  of 


156     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

our  Lord,  instantly  and  forever  magnifies  a 
thousand  times  the  power  of  his  work  and  ex- 
ample. 

Because  Dr.  Devins  has  been  led  out 
into  the  fresher  air,  the  lovely  fields,  the 
fuller  service  and  glory  of  the  Land  that  is 
fairer  than  day,  how  many  who  have  watched 
him  and  shared  in  some  degree  the  spirit  he 
stirred  in  them,  will  now  say:  'Well,  then, 
since  he  has  laid  down  the  tools,  I  must  do 
more,  much  more,  in  the  work  he  gave  him- 
self to!  '  Will  ten  say  so?  a  score?  a  hun- 
dred? a  thousand?  That  last  number  is  a 
minimum,  I  think.  '  Except  a  corn  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone; 
but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.' 
As  with  the  Master,  so  with  the  servant. 

His  distinguishing  qualities  throughout 
his  life  were  unfailing  courtesy  with  all  his 
downright  force,  sympathy  ready,  deep,  last- 
ing, and  always  a  passion  of  love  and  loyalty, 
—  wonderful  loyalty  —  to  his  Lord  and  all 
his  own  nearest  —  and  among  those  we  must 
reckon  always  the  under  dog  in  the  fight,  the 
handicapped,  the  poor  and  lonely,  the  ones, 
in  short,  to  whom  his  Master  would  have 
been  most  loyal.     Ah,  how  one  loved  him 

who  knew  him !  " 

*      *      * 

"  This   is   the   tribute   not  of  an  intimate 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     157 

friend,  but  of  a  comparative  stranger.  Ten 
thousand  men,  doubtless,  have  as  much  claim 
to  be  counted  in  the  circle  of  his  friends  as  I 
have.  I  have  known  of  him  and  esteemed 
him  highly  for  his  work's  sake  many  years, 
but  came  into  personal  converse  with  him 
only  a  few  times. 

The  first  time  I  ever  saw  him  was  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Presbyterian  General  As- 
sembly —  whether  at  the  meeting  held  in 
Cleveland  or  Philadelphia  or  Saratoga  I  can- 
not recall.  I  was  a  commissioner,  and  he 
was  reporting,  I  presume,  for  The  New  York 
Tribune.  In  order  to  hear  the  speakers 
from  the  platform  and  the  floor  to  the  best 
advantage  I  moved  up  into  the  seat  assigned 
to  the  newspaper  reporters.  With  some  mis- 
givings as  to  whether  I  was  not  intruding 
upon  forbidden  territory,  I  took  my  seat  next 
to  a  hearty  looking  young  man  —  who  looked 
up  from  his  notes,  gave  me  a  welcome  and 
made  me  feel  at  home.  At  proper  intervals 
we  fell  into  conversation  and  plied  each  other 
with  questions  about  men  and  measures  be- 
fore the  Assembly.  It  might  be  said  we  be- 
came well  acquainted,  though  we  did  not 
know  each  other's  name.  All  I  knew  was 
that  he  was  a  reporter  for  a  New  York  paper, 
and  that  he  seemed  to  have  more  than  a  re- 
portorial  interest  in  the  proceedings  of  the 


158     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

Assembly.  I  did  not  identify  him  until 
years  afterwards  —  perhaps  twenty  —  and 
then  it  was  at  Lake  Mohonk.  Then  I  said 
to  myself: 

'  John  B,  Devins,  sitting  on  the  right  hand 
end  of  the  speakers'  and  chairman's  table, 
and  reporting  the  proceedings  of  this  con- 
ference for  the  Associated  Press  is  the  man 
who  extended  to  me  the  hospitality  of  a  seat 
at  the  reporters'  table  in  the  General  As- 
sembly many  years  ago.'  Thereupon,  at  the 
close  of  the  morning  session,  I  sought  him 
out,  and  we  exchanged  the  right  hand  of  fel- 
lowship. 

Another  glimpse  I  had  of  him  was  on  the 
Ulster  &  Delaware  Railroad.  He  was  on 
one  of  his  errands  of  mercy  in  behalf  of  the 
Fresh  Air  Fund  and  his  destination  was,  I 
believe,  Shokan;  soon  to  be  annihilated,  with 
other  villages,  by  the  vast  Ashokan  reservoir. 
He  saluted  me  with  the  caption  under  which 
I  was  occasionally  writing  for  The  Observer, 
and  then  began  to  question  me  in  regard  to 
my  past,  present  and  future.  Did  he  not 
have  the  happy  faculty  of  making  a  man  feel 
that  he  was  interested  in  him?  At  least, 
after  conversing  with  him,  I  concluded  that 
he  was  as  familiar  with  the  resorts  and  re- 
treats in  the  Catskills  as  with  the  streets  of 
New    York.     And   through   him   many   city 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     159 

children  were  made  acquainted  with  the  green 
pastures  and  mountain  brooks  of  this  unsur- 
passed summer  resort.  Was  he  not  a  good 
shepherd? 

The  last  time  I  met  him  was  at  the  close 
of  a  Mohonk  conference,  on  the  Walkill  Val- 
ley Railroad,  when  we  were  all  en  route  to 
our  several  homes.  His  wife  and  other 
rr  embers  of  his  household  were  with  him. 
So  it  was  not  as  the  editor  of  The  New  York 
Observer,  nor  superintendent  of  the  Fresh 
Air  Fund,  nor  secretary  of  the  Mohonk  con- 
ference, but  as  a  family  man  I  saw  him. 
Having  introduced  him  to  my  wife,  he  in  turn 
introduced  her  to  Mrs.  Devins  and  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Penfield;  and  a  most  charming  visit 
all  the  way  to  Kingston  ensued.  How  happy 
he  seemed!  He  reminded  one  of  a  bird  let 
out  of  a  cage,  or  a  boy  set  free  from  school. 
He  impressed  me  as  a  man  who,  if  he  en- 
joyed himself  much,  enjoyed  his  family  more, 
and  rejoiced  in  the  Lord  always !  And  his 
joy  he  communicated  to  others. 

To  my  long-standing  admiration  for  him  I 
that  day  added  love.  And  now  to  love  Is 
added  the  hope  that  we  shall  meet  again  in 
the  City  where  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof 
and  His  servants  —  with  His  name  in  their 
foreheads  —  joyfully  and  forever  serve 
Him." 


i6o     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

"  We  mourn  Dr.  Devins  as  truly  as  though 
he  were  our  own  brother.  In  the  Audito- 
rium at  Northfield  Dr.  Frances  paid  a  beauti- 
ful tribute  to  Dr.  Devins'  work  for  North- 
field,  helping  for  years  to  spread  the  Gospel 
here  preached  to  others,  no  small  share  of 
the  success  being  through  him.  The  Rev. 
John  McDowell  spoke  of  his  ministry  to  the 
children,  saying  '  he  believed  Dr.  Devins  had 
really  laid  down  his  life  for  others.'  I  can 
well  believe  that,  for  I  know  of  his  devotion 
to  the  various  homes  and  institutions  for  the 
relief  of  suffering  ones.  He  surely  fought  a 
good  fight  and  is  now  entered  into  his  rest. 
But  we  will  all  be  so  lonely  without  him  here; 
for  this  we  mourn.     But  for  him  '  to  be  with 

Christ  is  far  better.'  " 

♦      *      * 

"  I  remember  that  Dr.  Devins  toiled  long 
and  hard  at  work  which  sorely  taxes  strength. 
I  never  knew  him  to  lower  the  flag  in  our 
battle.  He  was  a  prince  among  men.  How 
he  loved  to  uplift  all  who  were  cast  down. 
The  last  time  we  talked  together  he  ex- 
pressed the  firm  determination,  if  ever  he 
were  permitted  to  minister  to  a  church  again, 
to  be  a  most  faithful  pastor.  That  is  the 
phase  of  work  in  the  churches  which  he  felt 
was  often  sadly  neglected.  Some  men 
shrivel  and  harden  as  the  years  fly  by.     He 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     i6i 

grew  stronger  and  tenderer.  If  the  hour  of 
his  home-going  had  come,  as  we  most  rever- 
ently believe,  then  how  kind  it  was  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  to  take  him,  without  long 
suffering,   from  the   activities  here   to   those 

yonder." 

*  *      * 

"  It  is  hard  to  realize  that  Dr.  Devins' 
work  here  is  over.  He  was  the  friend  of  so 
many.  He  has  made  rough  paths  smooth 
and  crooked  paths  straight  and  has  shown 
others,  by  his  works,  what  a  glorious  thing 
it  is  to  know  and  love  God.  Thousands  of 
little  children  he  has  made  so  happy.  We 
can  surely  say,  '  The  world  is  better  for  his 
having  been  in  it.'  The  world  will  miss  him 
sorely.  No  one  went  to  him  in  vain.  There 
was  always  a  ready  smile,  a  warm  hand-clasp, 
and  no  matter  how  busy  he  might  be,  one  was 
made  to  feel  welcome.  Dr.  Devins  certainly 
helped  to  make  our  life  brighter  and 
smoother.     The  word  friend  has  taken  a  new 

meaning." 

*  *      * 

"  A  noble  character  has  passed  on  to  the 
higher  service.  No  words  can  adequately  ex- 
press the  personal  characteristic  which  we  es- 
teem the  most.  We  may  number  the  years 
from  the  day  of  one's  birth  to  the  day  of 
one's   death  —  we   may  mention   the   deeds 


1 62     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

which  seem  most  noteworthy  —  the  struggles 
and  successes  which  are  most  interesting  and 
characteristic —  and  after  all  we  have  to  say, 
there  remains  the  painful  consciousness  that 
the  best  is  still  unspoken. 

We  cannot  think  of  him  as  idle; 

He  must  be  a  toiler  still ; 
God  giveth  that  work  to  the  angels, 

Who  fittest  the  task  fulfill. 

And  somewhere  yet  in  the  hill-tops, 

Of  the  city  that  hath  no  pain 
He  will  wait  in  the  Heavenly  mansion, 

To  bid  us  a  welcome  again.'  " 

*  *      * 

"  Ever  since  we  were  associated  in  the 
work  of  the  East  Side  Federation  and  in  the 
relief  operation  of  1903-4,  of  which  Dr. 
Devins  was  the  heart  and  the  head  in  the  dis- 
trict about  Hope  Chapel,  I  have  esteemed 
him  as  a  king  among  men  and  one  of  New 
York's  best  citizens.  We  all  have  the  com- 
forting and  inspiring  memory  of  a  helpful 

and  brotherly  life." 

*  *      * 

"  Dr.  Devins  is  remembered  for  his  large 
work  on  the  East  Side,  as  well  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  city,  but  particularly  by  us  of  the 
City  Mission  because  of  his  work  in  connec- 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     163 

tion  with  Broome  Street  Tabernacle.  While 
all  of  our  workers  held  him  In  highest  es- 
teem, It  Is  at  Broome  Street  and  the  Italian 
West  Side  Mission  that  the  people  have 
special  affection  for  him  because  of  what  he 
has  done  for  the  members  of  those  two 
churches  and  their  children.  Everywhere  I 
go  among  our  Italian  people  I  hear  from 
young  and  old  expressions  of  affection  for 
him  who  lived  so  well  and  did  so  much. 

I  am  just  home  from  a  long  journey  and 
my  first  greeting  was,  '  Dr.  Devlns  has  passed 
away.'  He  was  my  true  friend  and  In  ways 
of  which  the  world  did  not  know  he  helped 
me.  I  had  for  him  the  sincerest  affection. 
The  Church  has  lost  a  great  man  and  The 
Observer  has  had  Its  heart  taken  away.  I 
wish  I  could  pay  a  just  tribute  to  Dr.  Dev- 
lns' greatness  and  goodness.      I  consider  him 

one  of  the  truest  men  I  have  ever  known." 

*      *      * 

"  When  three  thousand  miles  away  on  the 
way  home  and  looking  forward  to  seeing  and 
telling  Dr.  Devlns  all  about  it,  the  wire 
brought  me  the  sad  news  of  his  death.  That 
I  could  not  grasp  his  hand  again  was  almost 
unbelievable.  It  was  hard  to  realize  that  one 
of  the  kindest  hearts  that  ever  beat  was 
stilled. 

For   twelve  years   one  of  my  chief  joys 


1 64     JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS 

has  been  a  close  and  constant  association  with 

the  well-loved  man  who  had  just  laid  down 

his  earthly  tasks,  so  many  and  so  hard  and 

every  one  having  as  its  ultimate  aim  the  good 

of  some  one  else." 

*      *      * 

"  Everything  that  has  been  written  by  ap- 
preciative friends  is  true.  What  then  was 
his  peculiar  charm  under  the  spell  of  which 
we  all  came?  He  was  courteous  —  yes,  al- 
ways, not  with  a  superficial  courtesy  of  man- 
ner only  but  the  true  courtesy  of  a  kind  heart. 
He  was  unselfish;  it  was  his  nature  to  con- 
sider others  first  and  no  matter  what  stress 
was  upon  him  he  ever  made  time  to  listen 
and  to  advise  and  to  help.  It  was  these 
splendid  qualities  of  courtesy,  of  absolute  for- 
getfulness  of  self  and  of  kindness  of  heart 
that,  welded  together  into  a  true  and  all- 
embracing  sympathy,  made  those  who  knew 
him  love  him.  A  dear  friend  has  gone  and 
the  passing  years  will  but  serve  to  show  how 
much  he  was  to  me  and  memory  will  keep 
the  picture  of  our  association  together  as  one 
of  its  choicest  gems." 

HIS   FAVORITE   POEM 
Dr.    Devins   carried  much   poetry   in   his 
memory,    often    repeating    certain    favorite 
stanzas    on    occasions,    when   they   best   ex- 


RESOLUTIONS  AND  LETTERS     165 

pressed  his  convictions  or  emotions.  This 
poem  of  Whittier's  probably  found  most 
frequent  use  as  expressing  the  deepest  cur- 
rents of  his  life  endeavor  and  feeling. 

MY  TRIUMPH 
The  autumn-time  has  come ; 
On  woods  that  dream  of  bloom, 
And  over  purpling  vines, 
The  low  sun  fainter  shines. 

Let  the  thick  curtain  fall; 
I  better  know  than  all 
How  little  I  have  gained. 
How  vast  the  unattained. 

Others  shall  sing  the  song. 
Others  shall  right  the  wrong, 
Finish  what  I  begin, 
And  all  I  fail  of  win. 

What  matter,  I  or  they? 
Mine  or  another's  day, 
So  the  right  word  is  said 
And  life  the  sweeter  made? 


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